Mozambique’s economy grew by 2.9% in the first quarter

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Mozambique’s economy grew by 2.9% in the first quarter

4:40 CAT | 18 Jul 2017

Mozambique grew 2.9 percent in the first quarter compared to the same quarter last year. The growth shows an expansion of 1.8 percent but the numbers are below predictions.

The Mozambican economy grew by 2.9 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year and grew by 1.8 percent over the last quarter of last year, according to the Mozambican National Statistics Institute (INE). The growth of the first three months of this year is below the forecasts of the international institutions, which indicate an annual growth of more than 4 percent.

Capital Economics predicts that Mozambique will grow 4.5 percent this year, growing 5 percent in 2018 and 5.5 percent in 2019, after last year the country having registered the lowest growth of the last 15 years, with an expansion of wealth in the order of 3.3 percent. The International Monetary Fund, for its part, foresees an expansion of Mozambican wealth of 4.5 percent this year, then accelerating to 5.5 percent.

In May, the President of the Republic said he expects the economy to grow 5.5 percent this year.

Helena Afonso, an economic affairs analyst who follows African affairs at the United Nations, told Lusa in May that the growth forecast for the Mozambican economy had been revised down from 5.5 to around 4 percent.

“The liquidity problem is one of the main risks for the Mozambican economy, which has impacts on the level of foreign debt and on the budget,” she added, noting that “macroeconomic instability will not help the economy’s performance, either.”

In February, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) had forecast Mozambique’s economy to grow by 4.2 percent in 2017, after having registered the lowest figure for the last fifteen years (3.3 percent) last year.

Source: Lusa