The growth rate of Mozambique’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to slow to 5.5 percent in 2016 and inflation should be above the government forecast of 5.6 percent, according to the October Monthly Bulletin from Standard Bank Mozambique.
“The government recently released the State Budget proposals and the Economic and Social Plan for 2016, which will soon be up for parliamentary discussion, with projected GDP growth of 7.8 percent, which is closer to our forecasts only in the less likely scenario, with the most likely scenario indicating growth of 5.5 percent,” reads the October Monthly Bulletin.
In the document cited by Portuguese news agency Lusa, analysts led by chief economist of the bank, Fáusio Mussa, noted that “figures from the National Statistics Institute indicate that GDP slowed to 6.7 percent in the first quarter to 5.9 percent in second quarter, reflecting growth of 6.3 percent in the first half,” of this year.
With regard to prices, analysts at Standard Bank said there was the risk of inflation “being higher than the 5.6 percent forecast for 2016 due to the fragility of the metical and the need to increase some of the administratively set prices that have remained unchanged for a long period of time.”
