"On the foreign exchange market, the kwanza appreciated significantly last week: 3.5 percent against the dollar, with the average exchange rate trading at 624.9 kwanzas per dollar on Friday," reads the weekly commentary sent to investors, which points out that "on the parallel market the average of the sources consulted by BFA points to an exchange rate of 753 kwanzas per dollar."
Since the beginning of the year, continue the analysts in the commentary to which Lusa had access, "the Angolan currency has appreciated about 3.8 percent on the formal market and 5.3 percent on the parallel market, against the dollar.
Last week, analysts had already pointed out that recent developments were "an indication of greater satisfaction of demand for the formal exchange rate system, and may also be a harbinger of stabilization (or even appreciation) in the formal exchange rate.
In that weekly commentary, the BFA had already pointed to greater stability of the kwanza, after the losses of the last two years, since the exchange was partially liberalized.
"Taking into account the positive evolution of the oil price (and should this continue for the rest of 2021), a year of greater stability is expected for the kwanza, and some appreciation may even be recorded should the oil market improve more significantly," the analysts said at the end of February.
On Monday, the National Bank of Angola (BNA) pointed out that the kwanza's exchange rate has stabilized in recent months and considered that it should remain that way in the short term, with the national currency's exchange rate approaching the breakeven point.
The information was given during the presentation of the report on the evolution of the foreign exchange market, by the BNA, where the factors that contributed to the stability were highlighted, including the measures adopted by the central bank since 2017 and the evolution of oil prices.
In 2020, the kwanza maintained a depreciation path against the dollar until November, when it stabilized, maintaining this stability to date.
In December 2020, the kwanza closed at 656.224 against the dollar and 805.117 against the euro, which corresponds to an annual depreciation of 26.52 percent and 32.83 percent, respectively, with the real effective exchange rate approaching 2.3 percent by the end of 2020.
"We are moving towards, or are already at, the equilibrium rate," said the director of the Asset Market Department, Tânia Mendes, estimating that the trend will continue towards an appreciation of the currency rate.
