The direct debt of the State Business Sector (SEE) registered a 1.8% decrease in 2024, reaching 38.3 billion meticais (600 million dollars), down from 39 billion meticais (612 million dollars) in the previous year. The data is part of the 2024 Annual Public Debt Report recently published by the Ministry of Finance.
According to the document, the decline in indebtedness is mainly due to a 4.8% reduction in the stock of direct domestic debt, reflecting both the servicing of existing debt and the implementation of stricter policies for contracting new loans by state-owned companies.
In total, the stock of direct domestic debt decreased from 21.6 billion meticais (339 million dollars) in 2023 to 20.6 billion meticais (322 million dollars) in 2024. Of this amount, 11.4 billion meticais (179 million dollars) corresponds to the debt of the state-owned companies themselves, which saw a reduction of about 700 million meticais compared to the previous year.
Among the largest domestic debtors are five state-owned companies, which together accounted for 92.2% of the total stock of direct domestic debt.
Leading the list is Portos e Caminhos-de-Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) with 7.4 billion meticais (116 million dollars), followed by Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) with 6.3 billion meticais (100 million dollars), and Aeroportos de Moçambique (ADM) with 2.6 billion meticais (41 million dollars). Also on the list are Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) and Moçambique Telecom (Tmcel).
Conversely, the SEE’s direct external debt recorded a slight increase of 1.8%, rising from 17.4 billion meticais (274 million dollars) to 17.7 billion meticais (278 million dollars). This increase is mainly due to the accumulation of arrears, particularly by LAM and ADM, which reported overdue debts of 633 million and 190 million meticais, respectively.
The report also highlights that exposure to the US dollar continues to grow within the SEE’s debt portfolio, accounting for 69.2% of the total in 2024, up from 67% in the previous year, reflecting a trend toward replacing debt denominated in meticais and euros.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the SEE’s direct debt has been on a downward trajectory since 2021, having decreased by around 85% over four years, thanks to measures such as strengthened monitoring, creditor renegotiations, and the financial restructuring of state-owned enterprises.
Source: Carta de Moçambique
