"During the program's approval in 2018, we only obtained funding of 3.7 billion dollars. This means that the disbursements that were being made up to the second evaluation, took into account a total ceiling of 3.7 billion dollars, which means that we have a gap of about 800 million dollars that we can access whenever we want," said the Secretary of State for Finance, Osvaldo João, during a luncheon-conference organised by the Media Rumo group in Luanda.
He pointed out that when he joined the programme, "strategically and with advice from the IMF itself," the executive decided "not to consume all the funding available to the country," noting that the share available to Angola is around 4.5 billion dollars.
"Being in a phase in which the financing gap is relatively greater, given the reduction in oil revenues, if the IMF board approves the increase in this tranche, we would be very happy and would greatly help us to do treasury management in the near future," said Osvaldo João.
The Secretary of State added that access to this tranche may be requested in this or any other review made by the IMF.
On this year's revised General State Budget [OGE], Osvaldo João considered that if this was not done "there could be risks of the [IMF] programme not going well" and that the targets would not be met.
"Even with this revision, we continue to see a very strong fiscal consolidation path," noted the Governor, who recalled that at the beginning of the program "expectations were lower regarding the executive's ability to meet the targets.
In this sense, Osvaldo João praised the "very strong consolidation effort" made by the country.
Due to the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, the Secretary of State admits that "additional measures may be requested" and assured that the executive will be "fully available to discuss them".
The statements were made during the Secretary of State's intervention at the "OGE 2020 R [Revised 2020 State General Budget] Lunch-Conference", which, according to the organization, brought together "a selected group of entrepreneurs and top managers in a broad debate on the main instrument for the materialization of the government's economic and social policy.
On Friday, the IMF report on the third assessment of compliance with the programme, cited by the weekly Expansão and which is due to be assessed on 30 March, said that Luanda had requested an addition of around 740 million dollars to the funding of 3.7 billion dollars.
The document stated that the request "is justified by the fact that the external shock caused by the new coronavirus and the fall in oil" have caused "a substantial drop in national revenue", forcing the country to obtain additional funding compared to initially projected.
On the 15th, the parliament approved in general the revised 2020 SGB with the opposition abstaining.
The revised state budget, estimated at 13.4 billion kwanzas, foresees a deficit of 4 percent to the 15 billion kwanzas of the previous proposal, with an average price for a barrel of oil of 33 dollars.
The first version had been drawn up based on an average oil price of 55 dollars a barrel , an average daily production of 1,436,900 barrels and an inflation rate of 25 percent.
Due to the covid-19 pandemic there was a reduction in the price of a barrel of oil, which led the member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their partners to reduce production in order to balance the price of a barrel of oil.
