Mozambique’s Net International Reserves (NIR) totalled 3 billion dollars (189.6 billion meticais) in July. However, according to estimates, they only guarantee three months’ worth of imports of goods and services.
According to data from a Monthly Statistical Report released by the Bank of Mozambique (BoM) and mentioned by Lusa, at the beginning of January this year the country had 2.7 billion dollars in reserves, the equivalent of 174.6 billion meticais.
In the 2023 State Budget, the Mozambican government set itself the goal of building up Net International Reserves of 2.9 billion dollars (183.2 billion meticais), “corresponding to three months of covering imports of non-factorial goods and services”.
Meanwhile, in July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had already warned that Mozambique’s international reserves have been falling since 2021 and that they reached 2.9 billion dollars at the end of last year.
At the time, the organisation recognised the impact of the “high costs” of fuel imports on Mozambique’s international reserves, taking into account the supply of foreign currency to the main fuel importers.
“At the same time, imports not related to megaprojects have increased significantly in the last two years, further reducing the import coverage of reserves,” it pointed out.
Last January, the Bank of Mozambique increased the ratio of mandatory reserves to foreign demand deposits from 11.5 per cent to 28 per cent, and in April it reduced the supply to fuel importers from 100 per cent to 60 per cent.
