Ricardo Viegas d’Abreu was speaking in Luanda, on the sidelines of an Angola-France-Portugal business meeting organised by the Portugal-Angola Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIPA) and the Angola-France Bilateral Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CEFA).
The minister said that the government has maintained an “open and constructive dialogue” with all stakeholders, whether passenger transport operators or freight transport operators, to monitor the adjustment process.
“It is obvious that fuel has a very significant weight in the cost structure of any of these activities. The transmission is neither automatic nor direct and that is why we are having this dialogue with these associations here to ensure that there is some stability and order in the adjustment process that they will have to undertake, because it is natural”, said the minister.
On Monday, the price per litre of diesel increased by 50 percent to 300 kwanzas, equalling the price of petrol.
“The cost of fuel has a very significant impact and the transmission, although not direct, is a transmission that happens and these adjustments will have to be made”, he reiterated, adding that it is necessary to ensure that the economy becomes closer to what the real costs are.
“This is a gradual process, as has been communicated by the executive, but the truth is that we need to be able to ensure that this happens, otherwise we will weaken the national public accounts and that, in turn, also transmit an inability to, at least, guarantee fairer remuneration for people”, he continued.
Fuel in Angola is subsidized by the State, which took the political decision to gradually withdraw this subsidy, following the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has been happening since 2023.
