The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA) says that macroeconomic indicators showed a slightly improving trend compared to Q1 2022, with the Macroeconomic Environment Index recovering about 1 percentage point from 49% to 50% in Q2 2022.

According to the CTA, the improvement is justified by the dynamics of economic activity supported by agriculture and agricultural marketing, along with exchange rate stability. However, "the upward trend in prices continued this quarter, with inflation rising from 6.13% to 6.82%, basically reflecting the process of passing on the increase in international fuel and food prices to the domestic market.

The information was advanced by the President of CTA, Agostinho Vuma, during the presentation of the Business Strength Index.

Going into the assessment of the Business Robustness Index (BII) at the national level, CTA reports that in Q2 2022 the business sector showed a recovery trend from Q1, from 27% to 28%, although lower than expected.

"The slight widening of business robustness at the national level was supported by the start of the agricultural marketing season, as well as to the boost in port and logistics activities, against a backdrop of no economic constraints associated with the covid-19 fight," Vuma justified.

At the provincial level, according to the CTA document, Sofala and Nampula are the ones with the best performance, and are now in the 'Top 5' of national business performance. Regarding employment trends, it is noted that between Q1 and Q2 2022, the Employment Trends Index (ETI) registered a slight improvement of 1.59 points, going from 115.00 to 116.56.

"This ITE trend signals that there has been an increase in the chances of obtaining employment in Mozambique in Q2 2022 compared to the previous quarter," states the CTA report consulted today by MZNews.

On the basis of the hiring cycle indicators, CTA says that the ITE was supported by seasonal jobs, as the respective index of willingness to hire rose from 15.47% to 23.88% from Q1 to Q2, while the index of full-time jobs, virtually, remained at 25%. Therefore, "this trend suggests that Mozambican firms were more willing to hire temporary workers in Quarter II.

The results are consistent with the trend of the IRE given that, much of its improvement, was supported by agriculture, agricultural marketing, the latter not demanding permanent workers."

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the security situation in Cabo Delgado, and externally due to the prolonged impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Mozambican business class foresees a trend of continued improvement in business performance in the third quarter of 2022.