NET INTERNATIONAL RESERVES - US$2.489 billion
An inevitable result of this is a decline in Mozambique’s Net International Reserves to US$2.489 billion, enough to cover four months imports of goods and non-factor services (excluding imports by the foreign investment mega-projects).The general decline in commodity prices has a positive side in that Mozambique’s fuel import bill has been cut substantially. Sousa said that between April 2014 and March 2015 the oil price had dropped by 47 per cent.On the other hand, the prices of key Mozambican exports have also tumbled. The price of coal is down by over 17 per cent, and of natural gas by over 13 per cent. Of Mozambique’s agricultural exports the worst price falls have been for sugar and cotton (both with annual price falls of over 28 per cent).The aluminium ingots produced at the Mozal smelter on the outskirts of Maputo remained the country’s largest export. In 2014, aluminium brought the country revenue of 1.052 billion dollars, slightly less than the 2013 figure of 1.063 billion. The value of coal exports fell from 502.9 to 490.2 million dollars. Despite the price fall, natural gas exports to South Africa from the Temane and Pende fields in Inhambane province rose from 229.6 to 339.9 million dollars. There was a leap in electricity exports from 270.1 to 355.3 million dollars – largely because, after the rehabilitation of its turbines, the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi is now operating at near full capacity.Sousa said that the deficit on the current account fell from 42 per cent of GDP in 2013 to 36.3 per cent in 2014. Much of this improvement was due to a 6.2 per cent decline in imports.
FOREIGN DEBT - US$7.188 billion
As for Mozambique’s foreign debt, the latest figure from the central bank is that in 2014 the nominal stock of foreign public debt rose to US$7.188 billion, or about twice the value of the country’s exports that year. The bank put the debt stock at 45 per cent of GDP.This should set alarm bells ringing. For speaking at the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, last Friday, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Adriano Maleiane, put the debt sustainability ceiling at 40 per cent of GDP. He said the government would ensure that the debt stock was held to below this figure – yet according to the Bank of Mozambique this ceiling has already been breached.
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