"Angola's ability to pay its commercial debt obligations is limited by high budgetary and external vulnerabilities", reads the note accompanying the decision to maintain the 'rating' at B-, in which it points out that despite the service of debt is lower this year, "the government's credibility will remain susceptible to adverse movements in the exchange rate and the dynamics of the oil sector until there is a significant diversification" of the economy.
Standard & Poor's (S&P) acknowledges that the recent revision of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shows an economy worth 13 percent greater than before, but highlights that "economic growth, particularly on a 'per capita' basis, remains low due to successive shocks and higher inflation".
In updating the macroeconomic outlook for sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil producer, S&P now anticipates growth of 3 percent this year, accelerating from last year's 0.9 percent, and above the 2 percent forecast for 2025 and the 1.6 percent estimated for the following two years.
The public debt-to-GDP ratio, in turn, is expected to improve from 70.6 percent in 2023 to 61.3 percent this year, continuing to fall to 57 percent in 2027.
