"It would be imprudent, in my opinion, for Angola to quickly eliminate fuel subsidies considering the high inflation, the high level of unemployment and the difficulties that Angolan companies already face in their day-to-day to operate", defended Fausio Mussá, economist head of the financial institution, during an online presentation of Standard Bank's 1st Economic Briefing, and answered questions posed by an internet user.
"I think that the Angolan government has been very prudent from the point of view of the impact of the reforms on the citizen's budget, it has communicated that it intends to make a gradual transition", he added, recalling that at first the government has made monetary transfers to families. vulnerable and "probably only after inflation stabilizes will we see a fuel price reform".
This year, "Angola is expected to continue to use some fiscal surplus to continue to support this expense", he added.
Angola has one of the lowest prices among the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries due to fuel subsidies, on which it spends over US$1 billion annually.
The withdrawal of subsidies was one of the requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which, however, ended up not being implemented during the financial assistance program whose sixth and final evaluation was completed in December.
Fausio Mussá stressed that the IMF program was successful and helped to give credibility to the Angolan government's reforms, improving communication with foreign investors, and believes that the executive will continue to advance with reforms.
"From a technical point of view, I believe that the IMF will continue to support Angola even without having a program, it may be that a new program will be observed after this year, which would be in the interval, because Angola meets all the conditions, although it probably does not need financial support as in the last three years, mainly because of the price of oil and, perhaps, the government wants to have some flexibility in the conduct of policies", admitted the economist.
In an election year, the person in charge of Standard Bank believes that Angola will maintain political stability: "It has been carrying out reforms to improve democracy and we believe that this is a great incentive to help support investments. Fortunately Angola has been able to maintain peace and we believe that this situation will continue".
In addition, even in the electoral period, Fausio Mussá believes that Angola will maintain the general lines of reforms, especially with regard to fighting corruption, facilitating the business environment and improving fiscal management.
