Mozambique: Hotels, restaurants worst hit by post-election violence

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Mozambique: Hotels, restaurants worst hit by post-election violence

4:01 CAT | 24 Feb 2025

File photo: O País

The economic activity of hotels and restaurants in Mozambique fell by almost 15% in the fourth quarter of 2024 due to the post-election tension, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), which also pointed to serious impacts on trade and industry.

According to the national accounts report for the last quarter, INE confirms that the Gross Domestic Product at market prices (GDPpm) showed “a negative variation of 4.87% when compared to the same period in 2023, totalling 1.85% in 2024”.

In the first quarter of the year there was growth of 3.20%, in the second 4.50% and in the third 3.68%, according to INE data.

From October to December, the most significant drop was in economic activity involving hotels and restaurants, which fell by the equivalent of 14.7% in the space of a year, followed by the manufacturing industry, which fell by 11.14%, trade and repair services, with a drop of 10.64%, and the mining industry, which fell by 10.06%.

Since the general elections on 9 October, Mozambique has been experiencing a climate of social unrest, aggravated by the announcements of the results of the vote, with demonstrations, street protests, barricades, road closures, vandalisation and destruction of public facilities and businesses, looting and clashes with the police that led to more than 300 deaths.

Mozambique’s government had predicted that the country’s GDP would grow to 1.536 trillion meticais (around €23 billion) by 2024, corresponding to an increase of 5.5% in percentage terms.

Almost a thousand Mozambican companies were affected by the post-election demonstrations, with an impact on the economy of more than €480 million and 17,000 people lost their jobs, according to the latest estimate by the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA).

According to the CTA’s preliminary survey, 955 companies were “directly affected” by the demonstrations and social unrest that followed the general elections on 9 October, of which 51% “suffered total vandalisation and/or looting of their goods”.

“Aggregating the figures for losses in all phases [of the protests], we can say with certainty that the impact of the demonstrations was negative and cost the economy around 32.2 billion meticais (€481 million), dragging down more than 17,000 jobs,” emphasised the president of the CTA, Agostinho Vuma, citing the conclusions of the survey.

According to the CTA survey, the trade sector “was the most affected”, and the overall impact is equivalent to 2.2% of the Gross Domestic Product, which “negatively affected the economic growth projections for 2024”, which now “stand at 3.3%, well below the 5.5% of the initial forecast”.

The document also states that “the climate of vandalisation and stoppages during the festive season at the end of the year, namely on 23, 24 and 25 December” in 2024, resulted in losses estimated at 7.4 billion meticais (€110.5 million), “with 56% of these losses resulting from the vandalisation and the remaining 44% from the constant stoppages”.

Source: Lusa