Vera Daves de Sousa was one of the speakers at the first edition of the Angola Economic Outlook - AEO 2023, whose motto was "From Economic Recovery to Sustainable Development", an event opened by the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior.
"We are aware that there is still work to be done, but that does not erase everything we have done so far and it is our mission to show the path we have taken, to draw attention to what still needs to be done, so that citizens feel more the positive effects of this work vigorously", said the minister.
The finance minister noted that it was necessary to "put the house in order" so as not to "return to the starting point in a while", referring to the period of economic recession that the country has faced in recent years, now resuming the growth of its economy.
"We understand that it was necessary to lay the foundations, have political stability, have macroeconomic stability, create an environment of trust, reinforce what is the international community's perception of Angola and thus be able to have private capital, both national and foreign, available, risk the country," she said.
According to the minister, in order to attract private investment, the path taken to date was necessary, because "whenever you decide to open a factory, set up a business or buy bonds, buy shares", investors are "buying Angolan risk" .
"And nobody buys Angola risk having doubts about the performance of inflation, how the foreign exchange market is organized, what is the vision regarding the money market and how are the fiscal accounts, with doubts nobody invests and we need to to have the private sector with us on board so that the issue of unemployment, which is the great challenge we have to manage in the immediate future, is addressed, because the State alone will not be able to address the issue of unemployment", said the minister.
According to Vera Daves de Sousa, joint work is underway with the Ministry of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security and the Ministry of Social Action, Family and Women's Promotion regarding the issue of unemployment, "but all of these are palliatives".
"This is definitively resolved with employment and the State alone will not be able to absorb the active population, we need the private sector with us, the private sector only moves with confidence", she underlined.
Vera Daves de Sousa asked for confidence in the Government's actions and support in the vision of economic diversification, admitting that oil revenues still continue to have an important weight in the fiscal accounts.
In presenting the data, the Minister of Finance highlighted "an interesting path with regard to the weight of the non-oil sector in the composition of the GDP [Gross Domestic Product]", but which still needs "that all this is reflected both in the fiscal accounts and in the balance of payments", and there is still work to be done.
According to the minister, total tax revenue has increased over time, starting at three billion kwanzas in 2017, rising to 13.3 billion kwanzas in 2022, expressing confidence that "it is always possible to do more".
"We still have a large fringe of our economy operating informally, we believe that by emigrating to an environment of greater formality, we have room to do more things and with GDP growth we will also see tax revenue increase", she stressed.
Until 2022, the oil sector had a weight of 40 percent in Angolan tax revenue and the non-oil sector 60 percent.
For 2023, highlighted the minister, there is a "slight improvement in the composition of total tax revenue", having already passed the levels reached last year, to 53 percent of the oil sector and 47 percent of the non-oil sector.
"It is the path we are following and we have also noticed an increase in the expenses envelope, with personnel expenses, interest expenses and capital expenses being the categories that have more weight in what is the structure of the OGE [General Budget of the State] in what is intended to be done in 2023", she underlined.
The Government foresees a "slightly surplus" fiscal balance for the current year, added the minister.
