Ver Angola

Economy

Central bank governor says drop in oil production caused kwanza to depreciate

The central bank governor said this Friday, in Uíge province, that a drop in oil production in the last quarter of this year led, in October, to a depreciation of the kwanza against the dollar.

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José de Lima Massano was speaking this Friday at a press conference at the end of the 108th ordinary session of the Monetary Policy Committee of the National Bank of Angola (BNA).

According to José de Lima Massano, there was pressure on the national currency, which caused a loss in value of around 10.5 percent against the dollar. However, the kwanza, throughout the year, has maintained an appreciation against the US currency.

"In fact, what we saw in October was a change, a variation, which we also consider to be somewhat accentuated and that is why we prefer to extend the observation period to eventually take measures on the monetary policy side, with regard to rates interest rates, in order to counteract this effect and to continue, above all, to ensure that the course of inflation reduction is maintained", he said.

In October, added the governor of the BNA, the oil sector registered a fall of around 16.5 percent in export earnings, in the third quarter of this year, specifically by 1.6 billion dollars.

"It was a strong fall, we had a drop in exports that ended up bringing us less exchange rates for the economy and with that the market adjusted itself, what we have today is an exchange rate that is regulated by the forces of supply and demand and as there was a reduction in supply, the market adjusted", he pointed out.

According to the governor of the BNA, during this month there has also been "lighter pressure", with a variation in the national currency of around 5 percent.

"Softer than what we had in October, which also signals that somehow this effect may be already being mitigated, with the most recent developments, which was a replacement, so to speak, by the main currency sellers in our market, from the levels they had before October", he stressed.

For José de Lima Massano, it means that the current exchange rate adjustment mechanism has eliminated those situations experienced in the past, in which a variation such as the one that was seen particularly in the month of October, would cause "a real stress, an inability to operations to be carried out".

"From having to find alternative ways to make payments abroad, seeing operations take place in the informal market, none of that happened. What happened was: the interest rate adjusted and the market continued to function", he underlined.

José de Lima Massano said that the expectation is that with the replacement of export levels, the market will quickly find balance and return to a scenario in which, if variations occur, they will be lighter.

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