World Bank forecasts recovery of Mozambican economy starting this year

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World Bank forecasts recovery of Mozambican economy starting this year

3:03 CAT | 09 Mar 2017

O País / Mark Lundell

The World Bank predicts that Mozambique’s economic development partners will return this year. Its resident representative Mark Lundell also believes that the economy will return to previous levels of growth, thanks to the possibility of strong investment in various sectors.

Optimistic voices about the good performance of the Mozambican economy this year are joined by that of World Bank director Mark Lundell, who, without advancing details or figures, has said he thinks that there are now conditions for a reversal of the current deterioration in almost all indicators of macroeconomic performance with a strong impact on the cost of living and business performance.

“Mozambique’s economic growth has a strong base to increase this year. The international situation is improving in several ways; investment will be strong and investors will also strengthen their support for Mozambique,” the World Bank’s director for Mozambique predicts.

This is a vision shared by several national and foreign institutions (including the Mozambican central bank, Banco de Moçambique) that have been following the course of the national economy since the beginning of the crisis in late 2015.

The World Bank director also believes in the recovering confidence of international partners – which has been taken as a top priority agenda – who suspended financial support to Mozambique a year ago following the discovery of undisclosed government debts. But he reiterates that this depends on the international debt audit being conducted by Kroll.

“Being able to finish the audit later this month would be a good step and we have every confidence that it will be,” Lundell said.

Economic instability has led Mozambique to grow by only 3.3 percent last year, one of the lowest rates in the last two decades, when average growth rates have been around 7.5 percent. Inflation is still above 20 percent, but the Bank of Mozambique predicts that it will fall to 14 percent this year and that the gross domestic product will increase by 5.5 percent.

Source: O País