The president of the Angola-Brazil Chamber of Commerce (CCAB) on Thursday August 24 called for the return of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Angola to help the country with economic reforms and to control the devaluation of the national currency, the kwanza.
“I wouldn’t say intervention, but joint action with the IMF so that reforms can be made,” said Raimundo Lima in an interview, on the eve of the arrival of the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, for a two-day visit to Angola.
“There needs to be an urgent review of the country’s stabilization plan, which has begun and is already yielding some results, but perhaps the presence of the IMF could give the Angolan economy more credibility so that the factors that led to the devaluation of the kwanza can be circumvented,” added the businessman in the interview, in which he pointed to the devaluation of the kwanza as a major problem for citizens and businesspeople.
“The depreciation of the kwanza doesn’t just affect the segment of investors in Angola, the entire population is suffering, especially the lower-income population, which has less capacity to defend itself economically,” explained Raimundo Lima. Noting that Angola “is going through a record devaluation, with the kwanza falling 40% from May to June, to an unexpected value, and causing ever-increasing inflation”.
The Angolan economy “is practically based on oil, and when oil changes level, the country ends up with less foreign currency, but in this case it wasn’t just oil that fell, production also fell, which leads to fewer exports and less inflow of foreign currency, and hence less foreign currency”, emphasized the businessman.