Draft 2021 State Budget goes to Parliament
The proposal took into account the reference oil price of US$39 per barrel and a production level of 1,2 million barrels per day, said the statement from the Council of Ministers session, led by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
According to the document, the macroeconomic framework for 2021 shows an annual accumulated inflation rate of 18.27 percent and a non-oil production growth rate of 2.1 percent, while the oil sector will continue to experience a decline in activity, registering a negative growth rate of 6.2 percent.
The general state budget for 2021 has revenues and expenditure that are 5 percent higher than the revised state budget for 2020. Of total projected expenditure, 15.9 percent will be allocated to the social sector and 7.5 percent to the economic sector.
The revised (previous) state budget for 2020 estimated revenues and expenditure at 13.5 billion kwanzas. The reference price for oil, the country's main export product, was US$33 per barrel.
Speaking to the press at the end of the meeting, Finance Minister Vera Daves said that despite the postponement of economic growth this year due to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government continued to be committed to implementing the economic reforms begun in 2018.
In relation to gross financing needs for the 2021 year, the minister said that they would be lower than in 2020, when the weight of financing requirements on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 23 percent, and in the 2021 economic year they would be 15 percent.
"This means that the strategy of indebtedness of the tax base is beginning to have its effect and we are being able, increasingly, with tax revenue, to cover our expenses, which, of course, are not yet sufficient and the reflection of this is the deficit that we have, which forces us to resort to additional indebtedness," she explained.
Vera Daves considered the indebtedness normal, pointing out that it is part of the exercise of any State.
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