There is a long road ahead toward the Africanization of Angolan trade, which must be taken, if only to avoid the now-familiar external shocks caused by crises abroad. South Africa and Togo account for 66% of Angolan trade with Africa and involve primarily oil exports to Mandela’s country.
Angolan trade with the African continent grew by 9% last year compared to 2024, rising from 2.562 billion USD to 2.787 billion USD, marking the highest figure in the post-COVID-19 period. As a result, Angola’s imports and exports with the continent now account for 6% of our total trade, and although this share is not particularly significant, it is already the highest in the last seven years.
The same was true only in 2018, when the $3.4 billion in trade accounted for 6% of Angola’s foreign trade. The share of Angola’s trade with Africa is below the continent’s average of 15%. According to calculations by Expansão based on the compilation of the Quarterly Foreign Trade Reports from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), last year Angola exported goods worth USD 30.212 billion, of which only USD 1.494 billion were destined for countries on the African continent. Goods worth 28.718 billion USD were exported to the rest of the world, mostly oil to Asia.
All things considered, this means that only 5% of Angola’s exports went to Africa. On the other hand, Angola imported goods worth 16.827 billion USD, of which only 1.293 billion came from African countries, equivalent to 8% of Angola’s total imports.
The weak trade relationship between Angola and Africa does nothing to help the country, especially in times like the present, due to the conflict in the Middle East, which restricts the free movement of goods and drives up transportation costs, or in other situations where the global economy is shaken, experts argue. “This weak trade with Africa makes Angola one of the countries most affected by international trade crises due to its import-dependent economy. And the current situation is a prime example of this, because it will impact prices, and the end consumer will bear the cost,” economist Silva Miguel told Expansão.
In his view, Angola must significantly improve its domestic production to even consider increasing trade and move away from being primarily an exporter of oil (80% of exports), gas (11%), and diamonds (4%).
Source: Expansão
