Sérgio Santos was speaking to the press on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony for the members of the governing bodies of the Federation of Angolan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FCCIA), which brings together a total of 26 members.
In his speech, the minister stressed that this is a “very difficult” month, stressing that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) already foresaw in January a contraction of the world economy, now worsened by the crisis in China.
“Now in March, we begin to feel the true effects of the global world. A crisis in one of the countries of the world in fact has a very serious impact on the entire world geography and we are now experiencing the effects of a crisis that we hope will be temporary ”, said Sérgio Santos.
Looking at the local reality, the minister said that large aviation companies have stopped serving the Chinese market, "so the flow of people is decreasing".
"This means that if you buy less, in fact we will have a quarter - we have not yet made the balance sheet, we believe that in April we will have a balance sheet for the first three months of the year and we will see the numbers", said the minister.
According to the minister, the effects are global and Angola is verifying "how is the evolution of oil prices", which is its main export revenue, also feeling the reduction in the level of migratory flow.
“When the movement of people, of capital, reduces in the world, we immediately feel the impact, that's why we have to turn more inward, to Angola, and serve the internal market, I think that internally we have a lot of space to grow, we will have difficulties in the volume of exports, we will certainly have difficulties in the volume of tourists who may come to our country, but we have many opportunities internally to develop ”, he defended.
Asked if the execution of the General State Budget (OGE) for this year is affected, Sérgio Santos rejected the idea, stressing that “what will be affected, certainly, is the international economy”.
“That we are going to have less place to sell and entrepreneurs are going to have some difficulty. We hope that the coronavirus theme will revert in April - there are those who say that they are cyclical crises and that probably the epidemic, in April or May will end, yet the effects are there, the first quarter has a very negative balance ”, he said.
The holder of the Economy and Planning portfolio stressed that the economy started with a high expectation of growth this year, with a very large mobilization of resources, mainly public, to support credit.
"And we think that the Angolan economy is doing well, we have the expectation that eventually the flows will decrease if the crisis that the coronavirus is causing continues for longer", he stressed.
Regarding a possible shortage of products, taking into account the decrease in imports to China, the country that leads the list of cases, Sérgio Santos removed the scenario, saying that the reserves of goods are doing well.
“Exchanges are starting to be a problem now, the price of oil starts to be below the budget reference, but it is still the first month, let's get ready - as we are used to, we were already in crisis - let's get ready to face something if it lasts longer, ”he concluded.
