The Bank of Mozambique (BoM) recently announced that in the first quarter of 2024, foreign loan disbursements to the national economy totalled 4.2 billion meticals (66.7 million dollars), which represents a decrease of 64.9% compared to the same period in 2023. This information is presented in the quarterly balance of payments report that Diário Económico (DE) had access to this Monday (5).
According to the document, the significant reduction in disbursements is mainly attributed to the decrease in external debt contracting by both the central administration and other sectors. The report indicates that central government saw a 76.4 per cent reduction in disbursements, while other sectors saw a 52.0 per cent drop.
In the case of central administration, external loan disbursements totalled 1.5 billion meticals, with a reduction of 81.2 percent in multilateral agreements. However, the report points out that disbursements for state projects increased to 1.5 billion meticals, while retrocession agreements remained at 25.3 million meticals.
The private sector also saw a decrease in external debt contracting, totalling 2.7 billion meticals.
Disbursements were mainly directed to the financial and general services sectors, with 2.6 billion meticals and 126.6 million meticals, respectively.
In terms of external debt servicing, which includes principal and interest, there was an increase of 46.4 percent, totalling 22.1 billion meticals. The report attributes this increase to the growth in the private sector’s financial liabilities, which rose to 9.2 billion meticals. In contrast, central government external debt payments totalled 12.9 billion meticals, reflecting a reduction of 4.3 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
Central government payments were distributed among various institutions. The report specifies that 2.6 billion meticals were reimbursed to multilateral institutions, including 1.8 billion meticals to the International Development Association, 316.4 million meticals to the African Development Fund, 113.1 million meticals to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 1.1 billion meticals to the Norwegian Development Fund.
For bilateral institutions, 10.4 billion meticals were paid, of which 5.3 billion meticals went to Eastern countries, especially China, and 3.4 billion meticals were allocated to servicing debt with other countries.
The report also mentions that, in the private sector, payments were made for the implementation of projects in the gas industry and in the area of transport and communications, with a focus on improving mobile communications.
