Standard Bank Mozambique expects the country's economy to grow at an average of 3.7% per year between 2022 and 2025, "slow growth" given the country's poverty rate, said Fáusio Mussa, the bank's chief economist.

The official was speaking this Thursday in Maputo during Standard Bank's Economic Briefing, a public event to analyze the country's economic situation.

The country "cannot grow alone" and "the government has already understood the message," he stressed, pointing to the need to attract foreign investment as the key to accelerating development.

Cited by Lusa, Standard Bank forecasts Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates of 2.8% this year (discounting already the impact of the war in Ukraine and global inflationary risks), 3.7% next year, 4.1% in 2024 and 4.3% in 2025.

Mozambique does not escape the context of escalating global prices, but, according to Standard's forecasts, it will still have a "single-digit" inflation rate at the end of the year, said Fáusio Mussa, thanks to the control of monetary policy - the counterpart is high interest rates, but only affecting part of the population, compared to the vast majority who are poor and very sensitive to inflation.

Thus, after peaking this year, Standard Bank forecasts a pullback in inflation, with rates of 9.4% (2022), 7.3% (2023), 6.5% (2024) and 5.9% (2025).

The bank's chief economist reiterated the importance of diversifying the economy so that Mozambique ceases to depend almost entirely on a narrow range of products or sectors - as is the prospect with regard to the gas megaprojects.

According to the World Bank, between 62% and 63% of the Mozambican population lives in poverty and Bernardo Aparício, recently appointed managing director of Standard Bank (in office since April 01), speaker at the event, pointed to job creation in various sectors as the solution.

The leap to "a middle-income country" may happen with "a strategy that locates [in the country] much of the production of what is consumed in Mozambique, increasing industrialization," he said.

Only by promoting the "rest of the value chain" will "more jobs" be created, capturing the informal economy, in which the majority of the population lives.

The challenge "for everyone in this room" is to convert foreign direct investment into investment that creates jobs, stressed the CEO.

According to him, "it's easy" to be in the big projects, but "there is an opportunity" to bet on the value chains, where the small and medium companies are, and it's up to the banks to support this "ecosystem".

Meanwhile, this Thursday's forecast from Standard Bank gives a new macroeconomic perspective on the country, which has a State Budget (OE) for 2022, approved in December in a different global context and with other figures.

The 2022 State Budget assumes GDP growth) of 2.9% and 5.3% average annual inflation, figures predicted before the war broke out with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.