"As a member of the G20 and the main creditor of some African countries, China attaches great importance to the work of achieving the DSSI initiative (Debt Service Suspension Initiative) and was the first country to participate and support the extension of the debt service moratorium period, including of African countries," Gong Tao said at a press conference in Luanda.
The Angolan government announced in June that it was going to take advantage of the extension of the DSSI initiative, of the G20, to also request the extension of the moratorium on the service of bilateral unsecured debt until the end of the year.
"After assessing the conjuncture, the Government of Angola, through the Ministry of Finance, decided to take advantage of the final extension of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and requested its sovereign partners to continue the standstill of the bilateral unsecured debt service from July 1 to December 31, 2021," the Ministry of Finance announced two months ago.
The Angolan authorities have not indicated the value of the bilateral debt, but according to information available on the website of the National Bank of Angola, at the end of last year it was US$5,774.1 million.
Gong Tao said that the main Chinese financial institutions, such as the China Development Bank (CBD), the Commercial and Industrial Bank of China (ICBC), the Bank of China and the China Export and Import Bank (Eximbank), have sought to "react in a very active way," and to meet the will of the market, and are making concrete efforts to alleviate Angola's debt service, offering solutions such as moratoria.
"Last year, the main Chinese creditors were able to maintain dialogue and negotiations with the Angolan authorities to reach an agreement for a moratorium on debt service," he stressed, without mentioning figures.
"As far as I know, for the current year, according to the understandings reached in the framework of the DSSI initiative, the Eximbank is still holding negotiations with the Angolan side for an agreement for a new moratorium package," the diplomat said.
Last year, Finance Minister Vera Daves announced that the renegotiation of Angola's debt, both inside and outside the G20, would save US$6 billion by 2023.
In the third quarter of 2020, Angola's public debt stock was around 131 percent of GDP.
