"We expect the kwanza to depreciate more moderately in the coming months compared to the end of 2019," analysts write in a note on the evolution of the national currency in the coming quarters.
In the analysis, sent to clients and to which Lusa had access, the analysts of this consultancy held by the same owners of the financial rating agency Fitch Ratings write that "the currency was overvalued, worth 167 kwanzas per dollar when, in January 2018, the indexation to the dollar was abandoned as part of a set of macroeconomic reforms to increase foreign investment and halt the fall in international reserves".
In October last year, the kwanza lost 24 percent of its value, following the liberalisation imposed by the National Bank of Angola (BNA), but has since stabilised "and has been trading between 450 and 500 kwanzas per dollar since then," write the analysts.
In the analysis, Fitch Solutions' consultants anticipate that the BNA will "keep the exchange rate relatively stable during the first half of the year" and point out that last week, when it kept the key interest rate at 15.5 percent, the governor stated that there would be no devaluation of the currency at the level of what has happened in the last two years.
This, writes Fitch Solutions, "should cause the BNA to limit depreciations in the coming months.
