Next year in Mozambique will be difficult but an economic turning point, says Luísa Diogo

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Next year in Mozambique will be difficult but an economic turning point, says Luísa Diogo

10:32 CAT | 20 Dec 2016

Primeira Ministra de Moçambique Luísa Diogo, em entrevista,fala da sua profissão, do papel da mulher na sociedade, a mulher e o poder.(ACOMPANHA TEXTO) PEDRO SÁ DA BANDEIRA/LUSA

Lusa (File photo) / Luisa Diogo

Former prime minister Luísa Diogo yesterday said that 2017 would be a difficult year for Mozambique but an economic turning point nonetheless, and that realising economic forecasts, though feasible, would require a great deal of effort.

“Mozambicans already know how to work and make their choices in the midst of difficulties, and we will have to continue to navigate difficult waters, but we are already gradually recovering clarity,” Diogo told journalists at the end-of-year Bank of Mozambique press conference.

After a speech by the central bank governor Rogério Zandamela, the former prime minister and current chairman of Barclays Mozambique said that Zandamela had made it “quite clear that 2017 would be a difficult year”, but also “a turning point”.

Luísa Diogo said that the 14 percent of average inflation predicted for 2017, well below the 28 percent registered this year, and the growth forecast above 5 percent were targets that would require “great effort, given the constraints that the economy will continue to face “, but were nevertheless “feasible”.

According to Diogo, the governor’s speech also made clear that he would continue to be very demanding in the regulation and discipline of the banking system that he has demonstrated since he came to office three months ago, “and that is good”.

Likewise, the former prime minister commented on the announcement in parliament by the Mozambican president that most of the companies owned or participated by the state were being wound up or sold.

“Of a total of 109 companies owned or participated by the state, 64 have entered into a process of sale, liquidation or dissolution, and 45 are in the process of restructuring,” Filipe Nyusi said in his State of the Nation address.

According to Luísa Diogo, “the great message is to clean up the state’s public enterprise system and keep those needed to fulfil their function, but this does not mean that their management is not professional in respect of public assets”.

Just as the financial system was being cleaned up, she continued, “and the central bank governor is putting in place very strict forms of control, state companies have to do the same, and show they know how to care for and respect other people’s money.”

Source: Lusa