"The objective of the ADB in the coming years is to invest in financing non-sovereign entities, in other words, the private sector, and reduce sovereign loans", said Pietro Toigo, during the Virtual Seminar on Business Opportunities, which took place 'online' to from Abidjan, the headquarters of the multilateral bank.
The ADB resident representative in Luanda reported that the bank's investment portfolio in Angola is around 1.2 billion dollars, divided into 13 projects, almost half relating to the Agriculture sector, with more projects being prepared in the value of 2.5 billion dollars.
"We want to increase our exposure to the bank, but we are working to explore non-sovereign financing solutions to boost support for private investment," said the director of the Angola Finance Studies and International Relations Office, Patrício Neto.
"Angola has been implementing many policy reforms in various areas, some aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability, and others so that the economy works better, having an impact in the medium and long term", stressed the official.
Also present at the debate, the president of the Angola Industrial Association (AIA), José Severino, highlighted that the economic recession of the last five years has made life difficult for the populations.
"The economic crisis is five years old and was aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic, which ended up setting back all the progress we had made in inflation, which returned to around 25 percent, which extraordinarily worsens the living conditions of the population, which has a very reduced capacity for resilience and acute nutrition problems, particularly in the south, which concern the Government and civil society", declared the industrialist.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has worsened its growth forecast for Angola, now anticipating a recession of 0.7 percent, the sixth consecutive annual fall in the country's wealth, which is expected to grow 2.4 percent in 2022.
According to the World Economic Forecasts, released this week as part of the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa will register the sixth consecutive year of recession.
Angola has been facing negative growth in Gross Domestic Product since 2016, following the drop in oil prices, which affected government revenue, and the slowdown in oil production due to lack of investment and the natural decline of reserves.
