MINFIN's statement, released this Saturday on its website, comes after three major international rating agencies (Standard&Poor's, Fitch and Moody's) have made a downward review of Angola's sovereign risk assessment, while maintaining the prospects for stabilization.
"Although the different rating agencies refer to the constant pressures on the Angolan economy caused by the global pandemic [de covid-19] and the successive drop in oil prices, all agencies recognize the significant efforts made by the executive in terms of structural reforms, multilateral support and progress made under the IMF Program," MINFIN notes.
The communiqué mentions the "positive impact of bilateral reformulation of profiles of the main facilitators of oil-backed debt," without identifying creditors, but stating that the measures provide the country with the "necessary debt service relief.
Angola has used oil as collateral for its debt with China.
The authorities, the document states, are "making progress in implementing the reformulation of profiles of some oil-backed financing facilitators, a decision taken to better reflect the current market environment and provide considerable debt relief while maintaining the long term supply of oil.
According to Expansão, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting to assess Angola's compliance with its financing program is scheduled for September 16, a meeting that should have taken place at the end of June, but was postponed due to the stalemate in negotiations to restructure Angola's debt to China.
Last week, the weekly reported that there was still no agreement with China, Angola's main creditor to which the African country owed US$21.705 million at the end of 2019, 78 percent of which was commercial debt.
The Finance Ministry also confirmed, in the statement, Angola's participation in the G20 initiative, called DSSI (Debt Suspension Initiative), having signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Paris Club Secretariat, which brings together the main public creditors, on 31 August 2020.
"It is currently working on the process of implementing debt suspension, an initiative that includes all sovereign bilateral creditors," he detailed.
MINFIN considers these measures to be "sufficient" and adds that, at present, "it does not need or intend to begin any profiling negotiations with creditors other than those already underway".
