"In terms of international reserves, we ended 2022 with international reserves of around 14.5 billion dollars", said the official, who was speaking this Friday, on the sidelines of a business meeting with national businessmen, organized by the Agency of Private Investment and Export Promotion of Angola (AIPEX).
The official also added that these reserves allowed "coverage in terms of months of imports slightly above six percent, which ultimately turns out to be a positive indicator, because international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, recommend a level of coverage minimum of three months", adding that "in terms of convergence, at SADC level what is recommended is a minimum coverage level of six months and we were slightly above six months".
In his speech, the BNA deputy governor also referred that the current account of the balance of payments signaled "extremely positive performance in the last five years, since we recorded surpluses", which ended up having a positive impact on the global balance.
"To highlight the surplus registered in 2022, which was 18 percent of GDP against 12 percent in the previous year", he added.
This, he added, ends up having a "positive impact on the foreign exchange market itself, since it reflects a greater availability of foreign currency", he said, adding that they had, "in general, the year 2022 was an appreciation of the rate of exchange".
"At the beginning of the year, especially in the first quarter, we had a supply of foreign currency above demand, which allowed for a strong appreciation of the exchange rate, an appreciation that continued throughout 2022 and, in October, for due to a reduction in supply, we had a depreciation of the exchange rate, but even so, in general terms, in 2022 we had an appreciation of the national currency of around 10 percent", added the official.
Still on the subject of appreciation, he explained that this "was not greater because, taking into account what were the objectives of the monetary policy, the National Bank practically did not intervene in order to support the exchange rate", because they understood that they already have "a exchange market functioning normally", leaving "market forces through the interaction between demand and supply of foreign currency to determine the price".
He also reiterated that the BNA expects the economy to grow by 3.3 percent in 2023 and that inflation will fall to between nine and 11 percent this year: "We, BNA, are forecasting that the economy will grow by 3.3 percent in 2023 and in In terms of inflation, our perspective is that inflation will fall again to between 9 and 11 percent in 2023".
