Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s public debt rose by 2.16 per cent in 2025, reaching 17.1 billion US dollars.
According to the Debt Management report, published by the Mozambican Finance Ministry, domestic debt, which accounts for the largest share, grew by nine per cent, reaching 470 million dollars.
This suggests that the government failed to control public debt by 2025. In last May, public debt stood at 16.7 billion dollars. This increase was influenced by the growth in domestic debt, by just over three billion dollars.
“In the fourth quarter, the structure of foreign debt remained stable, with a predominance of multilateral credit, accounting for 56.3 per cent of the total, followed by bilateral credit, which showed a slight reduction in weight (34.5 per cent), and MOZAM 2032 bonds (9.2 per cent), whose stock remained unchanged throughout the period under analysis”, reads the document.
The MOZAM 2032 bonds are the renamed bonds originally issued by the corrupt state company, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company). Although the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional law, declared the entire Ematum scheme illegal and unconstitutional, the government has continued to pay the interest due on the bonds.
Regarding development financing, in 2025 the country signed grant agreements with multilateral partners, totalling 516.4 million dollars, with the Health Ministry being the largest beneficiary, receiving just over 120 million dollars.
The previous Quarterly Bulletin on Public Debt had warned that although the country had managed to reduce slightly its foreign debt by 1.2 per cent, thanks to the fulfilment of obligations and a focus on concessional financing, “the growing weight of the domestic debt raises serious doubts about fiscal sustainability in the medium term.”
