[2020-01-10] World Bank expects Angola’s economy to grow by 1.5% in 2020

Source: Macauhub

The World Bank predicts that the Gross Domestic Product of Angola will grow at a rate of 1.5% this year, which is a decline of 1.4 percentage points in relation to the forecast announced in June 2019, according to the Global Economic Outlook report published in Washington.

For 2021 and 2022, the last year of the period considered, the World Bank projects that the Angolan economy will see a growth of 2.4% and 3.0%, respectively, and in 2021 the rate shows a loss of 0.4 percentage points compared with the previous forecast.

“Economic activity in Angola is expected to have contracted by 0.7% in 2019, due to a drop in oil production for the fourth consecutive year, due to the lower return of older fields and the postponement of investments in new capacity,” said the report.

In its outlook for this year, the World Bank also notes that “the recently announced reforms in the oil sector should support a recovery in production,” which is essential for Angola to sustain economic growth, given that the economy is still heavily dependent on the production and export of oil.

The forecasts contained in the Global Economic Outlook for three Portuguese speaking African countries – Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique – are fairly consistent, and practically unchanged when compared with those included in the previous report.

Cabo Verde, for example, is expected o experience economic growth of 5.0% from 2020 to 2022, and previous forecasts have improved by 0.6 percentage points in 2019, 0.4 percentage points in 2020 and 0.3 percentage points in 2021.

Guinea-Bissau’s economy is expected to grow at 4.9% in 2020 and 5.0% in 2021 and 2022, and the differences compared to the rates included in the June 2019 report of an additional 0.3 percentage points in 2019, 0.1 percentage points in 2020 and minus 0.5 percentage points in 2021.

Lastly, Mozambique is expected to experience larger swings in economic growth, with the World Bank forecasting growth of 3.7% for 2020, 4.2% for 2021 and 4.4% for 2022. The percentage differences compared to previous forecasts are of zero percentage points in 2019 and 2021 and an additional 0.2 percentage points in 2020.