Luanda - The country recorded an increase of around 200 million dollars in the availability of foreign currency in January, rising from 600 million dollars to USD 836 million, the governor of National Bank of Angola (BNA), Manuel Tiago Dias said today in Luanda.
Speaking at the presentation of the Evolution of the Foreign Exchange Market and its Perspectives, following the last Meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (CPM) of the BNA, he highlighted that the preliminary data for February this year record a sale of currency, on the Treasury's side, in the order of 244 million dollars.
Manuel Tiago Dias explained that this is an exceptional sale, which will add the usual sales, made on the platform, and sales made outside,” which leads us to believe that, in the month of February, we will be able to have currency sales practically at the same time. same level as those recorded in January”.
“Despite what happened in 2023, mainly in the months of May and June, the country continued to have foreign currency available. We recognize that these availabilities were substantially lower than those we had previously. However, we continue to have on average foreign exchange sales by the main operators to commercial banks, in the order of 600 million dollars/month,” he said.
On the other hand, Manuel Tiago Dias highlighted the significant reduction in export revenues in 2023, in the order of 28%, having a “very” significant impact on export revenues in the oil sector, in the order of 28.9%.
He added that, given the reduction in export revenue, naturally, the country had less availability of foreign currency, registering a 37% reduction in terms of availability in foreign currency.
The governor explained that, with less availability of foreign currencies, due to the exchange rate regime adopted, there was an accumulated depreciation of the national currency in 2023, in the order of 39%.
As a consequence, he continued, the economy had to adjust, particularly in the external sector, which is why there was a reduction in imports, to a very significant level, “highlighting the reduction in imports of food goods in the order of 33%, particularly of essential consumer goods in the order of 45%”.
He added that, given the lower supply of goods, particularly food, “not compensated by national production, because preliminary data indicates that production in the non-oil sector only grew by 2%, we had inflation of 20%, in addition to the imbalance between supply and demand, and there are also other factors that contributed to these results”.
In relation to the Net International Reserves (RIL), he pointed out that they reached a balance of 14.7 billion dollars, and the BNA governor believes that the reserves will remain at a relatively high level, above 14 billion dollars.
He explained that international reserves are not used to import goods or pay for services to the State, but rather, “they are those currencies that are transacted on the platform, which commercial banks buy from other customers who do not participate in the platform, where they are essentially companies in the oil and diamond sector”.
He added that there are many other entities that sell foreign exchange to commercial banks on a monthly basis, such as embassies, religious institutions, international organizations and companies.
These institutions, he pointed out, sell around 200 million dollars to commercial banks every month, “with commercial banks purchasing on average around 400 million dollars, totaling 600 million dollars”. HM/AC/DOJ
