The Administrative Court (TA) said today that Mozambique's public debt has surpassed unsustainability levels, i.e. it is above the designed limits, imposing limitations on new borrowing.

In total, the national public debt was around 948.7 billion meticais in 2020.

The TA presented its opinion on the General State Account (CGE) of 2020 in a debate in Parliament, and noted that "the ratios of the public debt sustainability indicators remain above the established limits, placing the country in a situation of restriction in contracting new credit.

As an example, in 2020, the volume of public debt was 97.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), after 78.1% in the previous year.

However, the highest ratio in the last five years was in 2016, when the public debt-to-GDP ratio reached 101.8%.

With regard to internal debt, there has been a violation of the law. TA indicates that some municipalities contracted debts with commercial banks without the approval of the Minister of Economy and Finance or the respective municipal assemblies, even evading their responsibilities.

The auditor of state accounts also states that "as in previous years, in the economic year under review, the implementation of a considerable part of investment spending financed with external funds, 62.8%, was not through the Single Treasury Account, in violation of the principle of unity of treasury.

There is still a lack of channeling to the Treasury of the balances in the bank accounts of public institutions and an increase in the execution of funds outside the Single Treasury Account.

On the other hand, the state's assets are not properly registered in the CGE and there is a lack of conservation. Divergences persist between the amounts spent by the various State bodies on the purchase of assets. The TA notes that there is still an omission in the regularization of property titles, insurance policies for buildings and State vehicles in various State bodies and institutions.