The projections of the national economy for the economic year 2024 are described in the report justifying the proposal for the General State Budget (OGE) 2024, consulted this Wednesday by Lusa.
According to this document, which sets expenses and estimates revenues from the 2024 OGE valued at 24.7 billion kwanzas, oil production, including gas production, this year is expected to fall by 2.6 percent.
The OGE 2024 proposal presents a global surplus fiscal balance of 17.4 billion kwanzas, corresponding to 0.02 percent of GDP, as a result of fiscal revenues and expenses of 20.08 percent and 20.06 percent of the GDP, respectively.
According to the document, which supports the options for channeling public spending and consequently collecting revenue, gross financing needs in 2024 are estimated at 10 billion kwanzas, corresponding to 13.7 percent of GDP.
The gross financing needs for next year, highlights the text, translate into a reduction of 1.1 percentage points of GDP when compared to the closing estimate for 2023, in the order of 14.7 percent of GDP.
According to the Ministry of Finance, to cover the financing needs of the OGE 2024, the financing strategy will be centered on the issuance of public debt in the domestic market, with regular issuance of bills and Treasury Bonds.
At an external level, the fundraising strategy "focuses on contracting financing under concessional conditions with a view to preserving the solidity of the debt and will continue to monitor the evolution of international markets with a view to identifying opportunities to capture resources", he highlights.
At least 57.8 percent of total Budget expenditure for the 2024 economic year, estimated at 14.3 billion kwanzas, will be allocated to servicing public debt, internal and external.
The Ministry of Finance reports that by the end of September 2023, government debt had increased by around 54 percent, compared to what was observed at the end of 2022, exceeding 34.32 billion kwanzas (38 billion kwanzas), in December 2022, to 52.87 billion kwanzas (59 billion kwanzas) in September 2023, "influenced by the strong exchange rate depreciation".
As for the composition of public debt, last September, external debt corresponded to 72.5 percent of the total, equivalent to 38.33 billion kwanzas (43.3 billion euros), an increase in nominal terms of 57.7 percent compared to December 2022.
"However, it is important to note that external debt, when expressed in dollars, shows a reduction of 3.8 percent, from 48.2 billion dollars (45 billion euros) to 46.4 billion dollars (43.7 billion euros) highlighting the negative effect of the devaluation of the national currency on the debt stock", the document notes.
In relation to internal debt, this corresponds to 27.50 percent of the total, that is, 14.54 billion kwanzas (16.4 billion kwanzas). The contractual debt, in turn, corresponds to 947.49 billion kwanzas (1 billion euros), that is, 6.52 percent of the internal debt.
The Government's economic team, supervised by the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, José de Lima Massano, sent the OGE 2024 proposal to the National Assembly on Tuesday.
