Mozambique's GDP growth slowed to 20-year low in 2015

The gross domestic product of Mozambique rose 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, registering annual economic growth of 6.1 percent, 1.1 percentage points down from the figure for the previous year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) revealed yesterday.The slowdown of the Mozambican economy is reflected in the INE charts, which show a strong start in the 2015 first quarter at 7.1 percent, slowing to 6 percent, 6.3 percent and 5.6 percent in the following quarters.The area contributing most to growth in the Mozambican economy, according to the INE, was the secondary sector, with a growth of 8.5 percent, with electricity and water doing best at 13.9 percent, followed by construction with 7.4 percent.The primary sector grew by 6.6 percent, "underpinned by mineral extraction," increasing over 8.8 percent, and the tertiary sector posted a positive performance of 5.9 percent, "driven by the financial, trade and repair services branches".In October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised Mozambique’s economic growth downwards to 6.3 percent in 2015 and 6.5 percent in 2016, warning that there are "new challenges that require decisive policy measures".Analysts have warned that the Mozambican government’s forecasts of 7.5 percent growth in 2015 and above seven percent for this year were too optimistic, and the INE data presented yesterday suggest an even greater drop than the IMF forecast.In the last two decades, Mozambique maintained a historical growth trend above 7 percent, only interrupted during the 2009 recession, when the economy still managed to achieve 6.5 percent growth.But the Mozambican economy was rocked in late 2015 by a precipitous drop of the metical against the dollar, with an impact on foreign trade and rising inflation, associated with lower aid inflows and investment from abroad and increased public spending.