“We have a market that is now functioning. We do not intend to see an artificial appreciation of our currency”, said José de Lima Massano at a press conference in Luanda.
This situation would occur if the exchange rate variation did not follow the evolution of prices in the economy, making the Angolan economy “less competitive compared to abroad, stimulating more imports and more contracting of services to non-residents”, he summarized.
Lima Massano pointed out that the important thing is to maintain the “stability” of the market and it is in this sense that the BNA has taken measures.
"Surely we will not have in the year 2020 the level of currency depreciation that we had in the last two years, unless there is a very big misfortune", considered the governor.
“The exercise we do is towards stability and the BNA, with the instruments at its disposal, will try to maintain a restrictive course of monetary policy to ensure stability, giving the market space to function”, he reinforced.
According to the Angola Forex website, the kwanza traded this Monday at an average rate of 496.55 against the dollar and 548.10 against the euro.
In the note sent to customers at the end of last year, Fitch Ratings warned that the evolution of Angola's rating, currently with a negative trend, would depend on the ability to stabilize international reserves and the evolution of the currency quote.
"The kwanza fell significantly beyond our estimate for the end of the year, which was 344 kwanzas per dollar, which we had used in our debt projections; as around 60 percent of the debt is in foreign currency, we increased our forecast for the ratio of public debt to GDP [gross domestic product] at the end of this year, from 84 percent to 98 percent", said Fitch.
According to analysts at the rating agency, the monetary policy measures that have been taken by the National Bank of Angola "are in line with the program of the International Monetary Fund and, therefore, Angola guaranteed the approval of the second review of the program".
However, they warned in the note, the evolution of the rating, in the perspective of negative evolution since June, is linked to the "impact of these measures on the quality of sovereign credit, which will depend on whether the country is able to stabilize reserves and the extent of depreciation national currency".
