The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday, 17 April, that Mozambique’s public debt may rise to over 100 percent this year and places the country as the second nation in the Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) with the highest ratio.
According to IMF estimates for 2023 for the PALOP countries regarding the public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, “Cape Verde is the most indebted country (120.2 percent), followed by Mozambique (102.8 percent), Guinea Bissau (76.5 percent), Angola (63.3 percent), Sao Tome and Principe (54.8 percent) and Equatorial Guinea (26.4 percent).
Against this backdrop, the executive director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, warned, however, that, “the impact of multiple crises, the slowdown in economic growth and the depreciation of exchange rates is widening budget deficits in many countries in the region and highlighting pre-existing vulnerabilities.
The information was revealed at the end of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings held last week in Washington, at which the IMF revised its growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa to 3.6 percent this year.
