Mozambique: Investment hit $10 billion in five years

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Mozambique: Investment hit $10 billion in five years

2:01 CAT | 27 Aug 2024

Photo: Rádio Moçambique

The President of the Republic of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, said on Monday that the country had, from 2019 to 2023, received around US$10 billion in investment, and asked businesspeople to “diversify” the destinations of national exports.

“We recorded a flow of diversified investments of more than US$10 billion (€8.9 billion) between 2019 and 2023 directed to the sectors of energy with 40%, tourism with 18%, industry with 15%, services with 14% and construction with around 5%,” the Mozambican president said during the opening of the 59th edition of the Maputo International Fair (FACIM), taking place in Maputo province until Sunday.

Filipe Nyusi highlighted that a large part of the investment in Mozambique during the period in question was the result of the economic acceleration measures package (PAE), highlighting the reduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) and the exemption of visas for 29 countries in 2022, which allowed for “the diversification of the economy”.

“In terms of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) structure, this reality is more than evident,” as illustrated by the records for the first quarter of the current year, in which “the sectors of agriculture and other related activities account for 31.5%, the extractive industry has a weight of 10.5%, transport, storage and communications have 8.5%, the trade and repair services sector has a weight of 8%, and industry, 7%,” President Nyusi detailed.

The president stated that Mozambique had been experiencing moderate economic growth, with GDP growth in 2023 expected to settle at 5%, while in the first quarter of 2024, GDP growth was 3.2%, below the annual forecast of 5.5%.

“This outcome was the result of the tendency of the contractionary measures of monetary policy that led to the current situation, where low inflation is combined with solid trends of economic growth, the same with exports and along with exchange rate stability,” the Mozambican head of state said.

In his opening speech at FACIM, Filipe Nyusi also asked businesspeople to “diversify” the destinations of their products. He recalled that India, South Africa, China, the United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea, Croatia, Thailand and Singapore are the current preferred destinations for Mozambican exports. “This is a TPC [homework assignment] for us: to diversify the destinations of our products in terms of quality and quantity in a competitive way,” Filipe Nyusi urged.

The Maputo International Fair, the largest exhibition of goods and services in Mozambique, will run until September 1, with the presence of 3,300 exhibitors from 26 countries, of which 2,300 are Mozambican and 750 foreign, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which promotes the FACIM.

Source: Lusa