Mozambique’s balance of payments remained in deficit in 2023, at 2.426 billion dollars (2.232 billion euros), but the deficit fell by almost 65 per cent compared to 2022, according to data compiled today by Lusa.
According to official data from the Bank of Mozambique, ‘this improvement in the current account deficit is essentially the result of the significant reduction’, by 4.158 billion dollars (3.826 billion euros), ‘in the value of imports of goods by major projects’.
In 2022, transactions between Mozambique and the rest of the world were in deficit by 6.880 billion dollars (6.330 billion euros).
‘It should be noted that imports in 2022 saw a historic increase, linked to the arrival of the Coral Sul FLNG [natural gas] floating platform valued at around 4.2 billion dollars’ [3.869 million euros], the report states.
The document adds that the value of exports of goods in 2023 totalled 8.276 billion dollars (7.614 billion euros), of which 6.225 billion dollars (5.727 billion euros) related to major projects.
‘The sector that contributed the most to total exports was extractives, particularly gas,’ said the report.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi admitted last week that the country must start demanding local processing of raw materials, in order to reduce imports and only contract some local processing of unfinished imported products.
‘The time has come to start thinking big. We can even, in what we know how to do, say ‘that doesn’t come out of Mozambique any more, they process it here’. We can do that,’ said Nyusi, in his opening speech at the 19th Annual Private Sector Conference in Maputo.
The head of state also said that Mozambican industry ‘should no longer limit itself to processing the final stage of products by importing semi-finished products’, to the detriment of the country’s raw materials, as a way of boosting national exports.
‘Our joint action should converge to promote our potential through the promotion of inter-sectoral relations, free from the protection imposed by fiscal protection measures. There are countries that do this. We didn’t do that during our time in power because we had to manage and balance a lot of things at the same time, what we don’t have and what we do have, and if we make a radical decision we might not grow,’ admitted the head of state.
Lusa
