LUANDA (Reuters) – Angola’s government anticipates a budget deficit of 1.65% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025, slightly higher than this year’s projected 1.46% deficit, draft budget documents showed.
The draft 2025 budget of Africa’s second-largest crude oil exporter is based on a $70 a barrel oil price, according to the documents posted on the finance ministry’s website. Brent crude futures were trading around $74 a barrel on Friday.
Angola’s finance minister Vera Daves de Sousa told Reuters in an interview last week that the prospect of lower oil prices was putting a lot of pressure on the southern African country.
The draft budget also sees economic growth accelerating to 4.1% next year from 3.3% this year, with faster growth predicted for non-oil sectors.
The finance ministry estimates that annual inflation will end next year at 16.6%, from over 29% currently.
Daves de Sousa told Reuters last week that Angola was considering requesting a financing programme from the International Monetary Fund.
Its most recent IMF programme was for $3.7 billion, approved in 2018 after global crude prices tanked, decimating the country’s revenues.
(Reporting by Miguel Gomes; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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