Mozambique is the third most attractive country for commercial activity in Africa, according to Standard Bank’s Africa Trade Barometer (SB ATB), a study released today by the bank.
The SB ATB, now in its third edition, assessed ten African countries and was based on surveys of economic agents from various sectors, based on the categories of openness to trade, access to finance, macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, foreign trade, governance and the economy and financial behaviour of economic operators.
In this year’s edition, Mozambique jumped from sixth place to third, a rise fuelled by an improvement in the confidence index of Mozambican companies, an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows, which have recovered from the effects of the pandemic, as well as an increase in exports as a percentage of GDP.
On the negative side, the analysis points to high interest rates, poor infrastructure, limited access to electricity and the poor state of the roads, says SB ATB.
“2,000 clients were interviewed and […] they feel that there is an improvement, there is comfort” in the area of trade in Mozambique, said Célio Mucabele, a trade specialist at Standard Bank.
Angola, which with Mozambique are the only Portuguese-speaking Africans in the study, is in last place among the ten countries evaluated in the index on trade in Africa, with South Africa topping the table.
In second place is Namibia and in fourth place Nigeria.
