Mozambique closed the year 2021 with a debt of two billion dollars with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) according to a report by the banking institutions.

The WB - the institution that lent the most in 2021 - has been increasing the amount of loans for four years. Last year it lent $1,138 million, up from $527 million in 2020, while in 2019 it made $560 million available. In 2018 it unlocked $525 million.

Until the last day of November, Mozambique had a balance of nearly $500 million with the IMF, derived from purchases and loans, at the time still outstanding.

The sum of the debts of the two institutions reaches $1.6 billion.

Both the IMF and the World Bank do not display information about the interest that Mozambique must pay on these loans.

By June 2021, Mozambique's total debt stock (domestic and external) stood at $13.3 billion, equivalent to 87.11% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The IMF outlook until the end of 2021, indicated that the country would be over-indebted, with loans reaching 125.3%, and could become the most indebted in southern Africa.

June 2021 data, published in a Bank of Mozambique report on financial stability, indicated that "the public debt-to-GDP ratio fell from 97.48% in December 2020 to 87.11% at the end of H1 last year, reflecting the effect of the fall in total debt (11%) resulting from the reduction in the external component (16%)."

Source: letter