Oxford Economics forecasts growth of 0.3 percent in Angola this year

"We expect Angola's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow by just 0.3 percent this year, compared with an estimated 4 percent contraction recorded in 2020, mainly due to the decline in oil production and the impact of restrictions to fight the pandemic," analysts write.

In a comment to the release of the second quarter figures, sent to clients and which Lusa had access to, Oxford Economics Africa points out that the 1.2 percent growth from April to June this year compared to the same period last year "reflects the difficulties of the oil sector, the slow impact of policy reforms and the effect of the covid-19 pandemic."

Angola's economy grew by 1.2 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period of 2022, but fell by 2.4 percent compared to the first three months of the year, according to official data.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), posted on the website at the beginning of the month, Angola's economy expanded by 1.2 percent from April to June this year, representing the greatest growth since the first quarter of 2019, even before the covid-19 pandemic, when Angola had also grown 1.2 percent.

The rise in economic activity in the second quarter of this year is due to the very low effect of economic activity from April to June of last year, in the most accentuated period of the pandemic, when Angola's economy had fallen 8.4 percent, by that the result of 1.2 percent this year does not compensate for the previous drop.

Last year, the national economy contracted by 5.4 percent, following four years of negative growth driven by the drop in oil prices since mid-2016 and then by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

The government predicts the country's economy will end the year with zero growth, while the International Monetary Fund has revised its growth outlook downwards, now anticipating a 0.7 percent recession in 2021, the sixth consecutive year of GDP decline .