Study names Mozambique as the third most attractive country for trade in Africa – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Study names Mozambique as the third most attractive country for trade in Africa – Watch

8:08 CAT | 21 Nov 2023

Screen grab: Miramar

Mozambique is the third most attractive country for commercial activity in Africa, according to the Standard Bank African Trade Barometer (SB ATB) study released on Friday.

The SB ATB, now in its third edition, evaluated ten African countries on the basis of surveys of economic agents from various sectors, based on the categories of, openness to trade, access to financing, macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, external trade, governance and economy and financial behaviour of economic operators.

In this year’s edition, Mozambique jumped from sixth to third position, an increase driven by the improvement in the confidence index of Mozambican companies, and increases in gross domestic product (GDP) and net flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), which recovered from effects of the pandemic, as well as the increase in exports as a percentage of GDP.

On the negative side, the analysis highlights high interest rates, deficient infrastructure, limited access to electricity and the poor condition of roads, says SB ATB.

“Two thousand customers were interviewed and […] they feel that there is an improvement, there is comfort” for commerce in Mozambique, said Célio Mucabele, a commerce specialist at Standard Bank.

Angola, the only other Portuguese-speaking African country covered by the study, is in last place among the ten countries evaluated in the index, with South Africa leading the table.

In second place is Namibia, with Nigeria coming fourth.

Watch the Miramar report.