"We are finalizing our regulatory framework which is to be published soon, to be able to issue sustainable bonds", said Vera Daves de Sousa, explaining that the Government is assessing market conditions to avoid higher interest rates and shorter maturities in this planned 1 billion dollars issuance.
"Whenever there is a context of greater concern and less liquidity, normally, the bonds of countries in the group in which Angola is included are traded at very high prices; Angola is making its way out of a scenario in which it had a debt ratio ratio of 130 percent to GDP in 2020, to another in which it has a ratio of around 66 percent," added the official.
The minister stressed that "in order not to go back to those levels, we are being very cautious in all the decisions that are being taken and that includes the decision to go to the market, because if the 'timing' is not correct, the rate of interest will be high and the term short".
Angola's public debt has improved considerably in recent semesters due to the appreciation of the kwanza against the dollar and the growth of the economy, which emerged from a five-year recession in 2021, which influenced the ratio of public debt to GDP, which is measured in dollars.
Angola's public debt is around 70 billion dollars, divided into 60 percent external creditors and 40 percent internal creditors, which represents, according to data presented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in last week, 63.3 percent, well below the 130 percent recorded in 2020, but still slightly above the average for sub-Saharan Africa, which has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 55.5 percent this year.
"Angola will continue to evaluate the market and when it feels that conditions are better, that is when it will participate [with a debt issue]; an avenue that the country will also seek to explore, when it goes to the market, is to make a sustainable issue", added Vera Daves de Sousa, confirming what the Government had already said in the middle of last year.
In the interview, the minister made a positive assessment of Angola's participation in the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, which took place last week in Washington, and highlighted the involvement with multilateral financial institutions as a source of concessional financing and technical assistance for projects aimed at developing the country's infrastructure and keeping Angola away from dependence on oil.
"We have a concrete aspect, during this visit, we signed, on Friday, a financing agreement with the World Bank, in order to strengthen the provision of services to municipal administrations in certain target municipalities, and through performance criteria", she explained.
According to the minister, "these municipal administrations should receive a financial value, that is, they will work to provide a better public service and earn money for it, to strengthen their territorial capacity, the capacity to provide services with regard to identification of citizens (identity card processing), but also its ability to financially manage the resources it manages to raise locally", she said, in an interview with Voz da América, in which he linked this initiative to the process of creating municipalities.
