This Tuesday, the head of State sent a message to the National Assembly on the occasion of the discussion of the draft law that approves the General State Budget for 2022, read by the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior.
The head of State stressed that the resumption of economic growth is the solution to reduce the unemployment levels currently prevailing in the country and improve the well-being of Angolans.
"The country is coming out of the economic recession it was in, which is a hugely important fact. When a country's growth is negative it means there are many companies going out of business, so there will be many people going out of work ", he stressed.
According to João Lourenço, the proposed OGE Law for 2022 presents a balanced fiscal balance and is not a deficit, meaning that the country continues on the path started in 2018 of presenting positive fiscal balances.
"For the year 2021, we forecast a growth in the non-oil sector of about 5.2 percent and a contraction of the oil sector of about 10.6 percent. For the year 2022, we forecast an overall growth in GDP [Domestic Product Gross] of around 2.4 percent, with the non-oil sector growing around 3.1 percent and the oil sector growing 1.6 percent," he said.
With economic growth, stressed João Lourenço, wealth is produced, the contribution of companies to the public purse is increased, through taxes, and the State has more resources to implement its programs to combat poverty and in harmony Social.
In the proposed 2022 State Budget, it is estimated that agriculture will grow by 4.3 percent, fisheries 4 percent, manufacturing industry 5 percent, construction 2.4 percent, energy 4 percent and trade 3 percent.
"We will continue to work so that the non-oil sector maintains this positive growth trend, as it is the one that creates the most jobs and is therefore in a better position to contribute to the well-being of Angolans," he noted.
According to the President, the executive has made a great effort to protect the social sector, with special emphasis on education and health, which will have seen their share of expenditure increased in relation to the budget for the year now ending.
The President underlined that the oil sector continues to have "a great weight" in the country's economy and given the natural erosion of oil fields, operational problems and the lack of timely enough investments in oil prospecting, the physical production of oil has been decreasing.
"Due to the great weight that the oil sector still has in our economy, the negative growth of this sector has negatively affected the country's global growth and, for this reason, Angola has been experiencing an economic recession since 2016", he highlighted.
The President reiterated the executive's commitment to ensure that the resources registered in the OGE "are used rigorously, with discipline".
