MAPUTO, Feb.16 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican Ministry of Economy and Finance said Friday that despite various climatic and political events that rocked the country, the economy did not slow down in 2017 and has good perspectives of improvement in 2018.
"These economic results of 2017 are encouraging and they come after the country has experienced destruction of infrastructure due to climatic events and the political environment," spokesperson for the ministry Rogerio Nkomo told to the press.
According to the spokesperson, the year 2017 closed with an economic growth of about 3.7 percent against a forecast of 5.5 percent, the rate of inflation fell to 15.1 percent in 2017 from 19.5 percent in 2016.
Despite the fact that GDP did not grow in line with expectations, the spokesperson said that in 2017 the economy did not slow down but was rather stabilized, which gives good indications that in 2018 it could continue to have this level of growth.
In terms of public finances, revenues of 213.8 billion meticais (about 3.6 billion U.S.dollars) were collected, which means a growth of 28 percent compared to what was achieved in 2016.
Mozambique has been experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis since the scandal of hidden debts worth two billion U.S. dollars was revealed in April 2016, leading to the withdrawal of support to the state budget from the cooperation partners, including IMF and the World Bank.
