Angola is set to progressively start to reduce its debt to China, it´s largest creditor, according to finance minister Vera Daves de Sousa.
The Angolan public debt stands at USD 67.5 billion, a “sustainable” level, Daves de Sousa (pictured above) said in an interview with Rádio Nacional de Angola. According to the minister, Angola’s biggest creditor remains China, with a debt of USD 20 billion, a figure that the government plans to start reducing.
“Then the value of this debt will progressively start to reduce and the weights will change as a result of this amortization”, she pointed out.
The Angolan official admitted that there had been some “budgetary indiscipline” in the past.
Daves de Sousa stressed the need to “seek the least expensive financial solutions possible and in order to ensure that these resources that are being mobilized serve projects that will add value to the economy and that will help the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] to grow”
“Indebtedness is normal and we have been noticing that year after year the gross financing needs decrease”, she added.
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“In net terms, if Angola were to remove amortization commitments – we are indebted at 500 or so billion kwanzas (EUR 870.9 million) – these are the net financing needs”, the minister said
“So the bulk is basically to refinance ourselves, using different alternatives, multilateral financing, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the French Development Agency, financing from financial institutions, commercial financing, with the best possible conditions”, Daves de Sousa added.
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