The Angolan President highlighted today that the country is coming out of the economic recession it has been in for five consecutive years, “a fact of enormous importance”, with an economic growth of 2.4% expected for 2022.
João Lourenço sent a message today to the National Assembly on the occasion of the discussion of the draft law that approves the General State Budget for 2022, read by the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior.
The Angolan head of State stressed that the resumption of economic growth is the solution to reduce the unemployment levels currently prevailing in the country and improve the well-being of Angolans.
“The country is coming out of the economic recession it was in, which is a hugely important fact. When the growth of a country is negative, it means that there are many companies closing their activity, so there will be many people who will be unemployed”, he stressed.
According to João Lourenço, the proposed OGE Law for 2022 presents a balanced fiscal balance and is not a deficit, meaning that the country continues on the path started in 2018 of presenting positive fiscal balances.
“For the year 2021, we forecast a growth in the non-oil sector of around 5.2% and a contraction of the oil sector of around 10.6%. For the year 2022, we forecast global GDP growth [Produto Interno Bruto] of around 2.4%, with the non-oil sector growing around 3.1% and the oil sector growing 1.6%”, he said.
With economic growth, stressed João Lourenço, wealth is produced, the contribution of companies to the public purse is increased, through taxes, and the State has more resources to implement its programs to combat poverty and in harmony Social.
In the 2022 State Budget proposal, it is estimated that agriculture will grow by 4.3%, fisheries 4%, manufacturing industry 5%, construction 2.4%, energy 4% and trade 3%.
“We will continue to work so that the non-oil sector maintains this positive growth trend, as it is the one that creates the most jobs and is therefore in a better position to contribute to the well-being of Angolans,” he noted.
According to the Angolan President, the executive has made a great effort to protect the social sector, with special emphasis on education and health, which will have seen their share of expenditure increased in relation to the budget for the year that is ending .
The Angolan President underlined that the oil sector continues to have “a great weight” in the country’s economy and given the natural erosion of oil fields, operational problems and the lack of timely enough investments in oil prospecting, the physical production of oil has been decreasing.
“Due to the great weight that the oil sector still has in our economy, the negative growth of this sector has negatively affected the country’s global growth and, for this reason, Angola has been experiencing an economic recession since 2016”, he highlighted.
The Angolan President reiterated the executive’s commitment to ensure that the resources registered in the OGE “are used in a rigorous manner, with discipline”.
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