The foreign exchange market recorded significant growth of 17 per cent in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter, with sales of foreign currency between commercial banks and clients reaching a total of 129.8 billion meticals. The information was consulted this Tuesday (20) by Diário Económico (DE) in the bulletin on the money, interbank and foreign exchange markets, recently released by the Bank of Mozambique (BoM).
According to the report, the total volume of foreign exchange sales over the months of April, May and June 2024 was higher than the 110.9 billion meticals recorded in the first quarter of 2024, reflecting continued growth in demand for foreign exchange, driven by various economic factors. In addition, operations in derivatives, such as forward exchange and currency swaps (temporary currency exchanges between two parties, used to manage exchange rate risks), totalled 19.2 billion meticals in the second quarter.
The DE had already reported in April that the director of the Bank of Mozambique (BoM), Jamal Luís Omar, said that the current state of the country’s foreign exchange market remained liquid and stable, taking into account the indicators of revenue from exports and other factors.
He was responding to concerns raised by the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA) during the Business Environment Monitoring Council (CMAN), an event that took place that month.
More recently, however, the business community has expressed concerns about the availability of foreign currency on the market.
The president of the CTA pointed out that ‘the worsening of access to foreign currency on the national market has been a very negative factor that influences business transactions, particularly those that depend on international trade’, emphasising that the lower availability of foreign currency has had repercussions on the fall in exports.
This lower availability comes from the new currency restriction measures adopted by the BoM (Bank of Mozambique), the CTA emphasised.
Felisberto Ruco (DE)
