The current account of Angola’s balance of payments contracted by 64.2 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022, despite recording a surplus of 4.2 billion dollars (3.8 billion euros), due to the fall in oil exports.
The current account balance in 2022 represented 11,762.9 million dollars (10.7 billion euros) compared to 4,210 million dollars in 2023, a drop of 64.2 per cent.
According to a note from the National Bank of Angola (BNA) on external statistics for 2023, consulted today by Lusa, the current account surplus was equivalent to 4.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The decrease in exports of goods, especially crude oil, due to the 20.2 percent drop in the price of Angolan crude, contributed to the unfavourable performance of the current account, despite a decrease in imports of goods and services (17.1 percent) and the deficit in primary income (1.2 percent) and secondary income (55.8 percent), according to the BNA.
The Angolan central bank also noted that the capital and financial account had seen a 49 per cent reduction in its deficit over this period, from 7.8 billion dollars (7.1 billion euros) in 2022 to 3.9 billion dollars (3.5 billion euros) in 2023.
As for the net international investment position, last year its deficit was reduced by 1.2 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros), “as a result of the reduction in liabilities to non-residents, despite the reduction in assets”.
The BNA also pointed out that, of the main assets that Angola held in this period, reserve assets stood out, whose ‘stock’ stood at 14.7 billion dollars (13.5 billion euros) at the end of 2023, equivalent to eight months of imports of goods and services compared to 14.6 billion dollars in 2022.
Lusa
