[2019-10-31] Angola’s 2020 budget outlines an increase in expenditure of 4.5 trillion kwanzas

Source: Macauhub

The draft 2020 State Budget Law, delivered to the National Assembly by the Government of Angola, includes expenditure of 15.87 trillion kwanzas, an increase of 4.5 trillion compared to the revised State Budget for 2019.

The President of the National Assembly, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, received the document from the State Minister for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior, who was accompanied by the Minister of Finance, Vera Daves, among other members of the government and advisers of the President of the Republic, according to the Angop news agency.

Nunes Júnior said at the time that the 2020 Budget forecasts a surplus of 1.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which he considered was the safest way out of the “debt trap”, which generally obliges the country to take on debt to pay off debt, maintaining the path of fiscal surplus that began in 2018, with 2.2% of GDP.

The Minister of State said that with the 2020 State Budget he expects a recovery of economic growth of 1.8%, with the non-oil sector increasing 1.9%, and with a focus on the agriculture, fisheries and manufacturing sectors, in order to reverse the negative results recorded since 2016.

The Minister of Finance, Vera Daves, said in turn that the 2020 Budget had been prepared with a reference value of US$55 per barrel of oil, a figure that offsets possible price volatility, given the outlook of the world oil market.

She noted that next year’s State Budget proposal was higher than the revised 2019 budget, in order to ensure that a considerable part is devoted to paying down public debt, without neglecting other social expenditures, which account for 40.7% of expenditure.

The president of the parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance, Ruth Mendes, said that the 2020 State Budget may be approved in general on 8 November 8 and in specific terms on 19 November.