According to the minister, the Government is doing everything it can to reduce and alleviate this risk, because it is "aware of the constraints that this causes to families".
"This risk exists, to be completely honest. This risk exists because it is related to the pressure of debt servicing and the timing of revenue receipts, but we are doing everything we can to ensure that the risk is always minimised and mitigated, because we are aware of the constraints that this causes to families", she said.
In statements to the press, quoted by Angop, after the meeting of the Economic Commission of the Council of Ministers, which took place this Wednesday, Vera Daves said that there is a time lag between the moment when tax revenues enter the treasury's single account and the dates on which the Government needs to fulfil its commitments.
The minister explained that if they had been able to "build a good buffer" to reduce this timing, people would hardly feel it: "If we had managed to build a good buffer to minimize this timing, citizens would hardly feel it, because it would allow us to cover this time lag", she said, adding that due to "the pressure of debt service, which in some months is greater than in others, we have not been able to build this buffer".
Quoted by Angop, Vera Daves clarified that every time revenue comes in, it is automatically used to service the public debt and as the majority is titled, "the system automatically debits our account".
"As revenue comes in, we continue with the payment process", said Vera Daves, referring to the payroll.
According to the minister, they occasionally have difficulty in managing the debt, which is often negotiated with some financial institutions.
"Therefore, we have been increasingly cautious not only with regard to new hires, as we are talking about a monthly payroll of around 300 billion kwanzas", said the minister, quoted by Angop.
It should be noted that the payment of civil servants' salaries last month was delayed. This situation caused a stir at the beginning of this month, with UNITA even questioning the delay. However, on 2 August, the Ministry of Finance assured that salaries for July had already been regularized, justifying the delays with the "disconnection between the inflow of resources and the essential commitments of the State".
In addition, the minister also stated that treasury bills were issued, totaling around 805 billion kwanzas, and debt servicing, that is, payments of principal and interest to creditor financial institutions, was 1.66 trillion kwanzas.
Regarding external debt, the minister continued, Angola has disbursed financing of around 475.2 billion kwanzas and paid 2.04 billion kwanzas in principal, interest and commission payments.
"We therefore have a debt stock of 54.4 billion kwanzas. In terms of the debt/GDP ratio, we are close to 74 percent of the debt/GDP stock," she indicated.
Regarding the budget balance, Vera Daves de Sousa highlighted that budget execution recorded a budget surplus of around 823.51 billion kwanzas.
The Minister of Finance highlighted that financial charges continue to be the item that consumes the most of budget execution, stressing that execution in the first quarter was 16 percent of the approved budget.
It should be noted that, this Wednesday, the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers approved the State Budget Execution Report for the second quarter of 2024.
According to a note from CIPRA, to which VerAngola had access, the committee meeting was held at the Presidential Palace and was chaired by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
"The meeting served to approve the State Budget Execution Report for the second quarter of 2024, a document that reflects, in a global view, the performance of the State Budget in the referred period (months of April, May and June)", reads the note, which adds that the report now approved will now go to the National Assembly for consideration by parliamentarians.
The 2024 State Budget presented an estimated authorized revenue and expenditure of 24.72 billion kwanzas, with revenues of 5.45 billion kwanzas collected and expenditures of 4.63 billion kwanzas made in the second quarter of the year.
"The revenue collected in the period represents an execution of around 22 percent, in relation to the approved annual revenue, with current revenues collected corresponding to an execution of 26 percent and a share of total revenue of 70 percent, and capital revenues had an execution of 16 percent of the expected annual value and a share of total revenue of 30 percent", it said in a statement.
