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Angola BALANCE OF PAYMENTS, FINANCES, AND FOREIGN DEBT
Balance of Trade and Payments
Despite generally large trade surpluses, the national
current
account has been in deficit since statistics were first
published
in 1978. Trade surpluses have been outweighed by large
deficits on
"invisibles"--primarily interest and profits, transport
costs, and
technical assistance payments. The largest part of the
outflow for
interest and profits was accounted for by the payments of
state-run
petroleum companies abroad for amortization of their loans
(see
table 11, Appendix A).
By 1988 the medium-term and long-term capital account
had been
positive for many years because of large inflows from
loans, most
of which were granted by the Soviet Union on concessional
terms.
The centralized planning system strictly controlled
external
borrowing, and each year the Ministry of Planning set a
ceiling on
borrowing, following consultations with the National Bank
of Angola
(Banco Nacional de Angola -- BNA).
Most of Angola's debt has been contracted on
concessional
terms. The effective rate of interest on medium-term and
long-term
debt was only 4.9 percent in 1985, and the average loan
maturity
was about seven years. Out of a total of US$3.25 billion
in
disbursed and undisbursed debt, US$2.06 billion was owed
to the
Soviet Union for military purchases. This amount carried
very
attractive terms: an annual interest rate of 3 percent and
repayment over ten years, including a three-year grace
period. In
contrast, only 11.5 percent of loans from creditors
outside Comecon
were granted on a concessional basis.
The government has taken steps to reverse the growth in
imports
of services, proposing new programs to train Angolans to
provide
key technical assistance. At the Second Party Congress in
December
1985, the government proposed several steps to give
priority to
national companies when awarding building contracts; to
cut less
essential services, such as transport expenditures and
international telephone and telex usage; and provisionally
to
suspend private transfers abroad. In particular, in March
and June
1986 the government placed severe restrictions on salary
transfers
abroad by foreign resident workers and foreign aid
workers.
Data as of February 1989
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