Angola: Economy Slows Down On Lower Oil Sales

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The international crisis and the related reduction in oil prices have led to a sharp slowdown in Angola’s growth despite the fact that it is one of the top exporters of crude oil in Africa, according to the Finance Minister Pius Abraão Gourgel, who urged the need to “diversify”.

According to the minister, after recording a 17% growth rate in 2008, GDP has fallen to a level between 2 and 3% per annum.

Gourgel noted that the negative effect was brought about by an excessive reliance on oi, which accounts for anywhere between 45% and 50% of GDP, and three-quarters of government revenues and 98% of exports.

Some missionaries who live in Luanda believe that the difficulties facing the economy are likely to further penalize investment and social improvement projects.

“On the waterfront of the old town boulevards, parks and even an auditorium have been built,” Father Louis Frattin, who is in Angola with the Society of African Missions (SMA) told MISNA, “while the suburbs are without schools and hospitals.”

MISNA

MISNA, or the Missionary International Service News Agency, provides daily news ‘from, about and for’ the 'world’s Souths', not just in the geographical sense, since December 1997.

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