Business
After experiencing surplus, Angola aims to balance budget in 2012
The estimates differ slightly from those provided by Dos Santos in a speech last week, when he put 2011 growth at 3.7 percent, in line with the International Monetary Fund’s projection, and then speeding up to 12 percent in 2012.
Angola’s economy was hit hard when crude prices began to drop in 2008 with its growth rate slowing sharply to 2.4 percent in 2009 after five years of double-digit expansion.
The country posted a budget deficit of 4.4 percent that year, its first since 2003, followed by a 2 percent deficit last year.
The 2011 budget forecast a budget surplus of 2.4 percent based on economic expansion of 7.6 percent, but the government has been forced to revise its growth forecast due to lower-than-expected oil output due to technical problems.
Analysts say, however, that despite the shortfall in revenues, the government has been cautious in its spending programme and is on track to meet the surplus target.
