Luanda - The public debt service of the Angolan state for the financial year 2025 is set at 57.4 trillion kwanzas (58.61 billion U.S. dollars), which represents 63% of the gross domestic product (GDP), the country's Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa announced Monday in Luanda.
The minister, who presented the Annual Debt Plan (PAE) 2025, said that the public debt service for this year is estimated at about 13.2 trillion kwanzas, equivalent to about 13.53 billion US dollars, with a projection of raising about 14.6 billion kwanzas (14.93 billion US dollars).
According to the minister, Angola's debt service has averaged 16 billion US dollars per year over the past three years, with China as the largest creditor.
"Debt is a strategic tool for the growth and development of our country. Obviously, the best solution will always be to increase tax revenues, to use our own resources, but public debt is an instrument that we cannot ignore," said the Minister.
For Vera Daves de Sousa, public debt management is a demanding and challenging task, but one that is fundamental to ensuring macroeconomic stability and financing development priorities.
Regarding Angola's debt in the international market, the minister said that the government had proactively brought forward part of the maturity of Eurobonds and issues that were due to mature this year.
The minister added that these issues went from a total 1.5 billion to 864 million US dollars in a "lucky operation" after the government decided that the time was right, which made it possible to service the debt.
From the point of view of the domestic market, the Finance Minister explained that the change in the debt profile is also remarkable in its new decentralized model, underlining that Angola is on a satisfactory path, coming out of figures above 100% of GDP. OPF/QCB/DAN/AMP
