The Current Account (CA) balance improved in Mozambique in the first half of this year, by 4 billion dollars, but is still in the negative, reports the Bank of Mozambique (BdM).
According to the monthly report on the Economic Situation and Inflation Outlook, published by the BdM and to which DE had access, in the first half of this year, the Current Account balance was negative 1.2 billion dollars (deficit), compared to 5.2 billion dollars in the same period last year.
“The improvement in the Current Account balance resulted from a reduction in imports,” the document states, emphasising that in the period in question, the value of exports of goods fell by 171 million dollars compared to the same period in 2022.
This reduction, according to the BdM, is essentially explained by the sharp drop in the prices of the main export goods on the international market.
In the same vein, imports fell by 4.1 billion dollars, which is explained by the basic statistical effect, strongly influenced by the significant value of the floating platform of the Coral Sul project (corresponding to around 4.2 billion dollars), recorded in the first half of 2022.
“Among the main export products, only gas and heavy sands recorded increases, reflecting the volume effect, while the rest suffered significantly from the fall in prices on the international market,” adds the report, which predicts that in the short term the volume of exports will continue to grow, favoured by the continued improvement in the performance of major projects, especially natural gas and coal.
However, the capital and financial account recorded a deficit of almost 3.5 billion dollars in the period under review, with the figure standing at 1.4 billion dollars in the first half of this year, compared to 4.9 billion in the same period last year.