The Mozambican government forecasts economic growth of 5% in 2023 in the draft plan and budget for 2023 approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers and which will be submitted to parliament, announced the spokesman of the body.

"The Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE) for 2023 aims to define annual macroeconomic targets, aiming to achieve a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5% and maintain the average annual inflation rate at 11.5%," said Filimão Suaze quoted by Lusa.

This year, and with the numbers counted by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) until August, inflation in Mozambique is at 7.62%.

In one of its latest forecasts, Standard Bank anticipated that Mozambique should end the year with inflation of 11.7%, with the pace of price increases slowing in the coming months.

For its part, the Oxford Economics Africa consultancy forecasts inflation to be above 12%.

As for economic growth, Mozambique's GDP grew by 4.37% in the first half of 2022 and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - which in May reopened the country's access to financing - points to a growth of 3.8% at the end of the year.

According to the spokesman, it is also planned to increase exports of goods to $8.8 billion, in addition to building up reserves to cover three months of imports of goods and services.

In nominal terms, the State Budget for 2023 foresees an expenditure of 472 billion meticais, about a quarter of which will be covered by financing.

The discussion of the Economic and Social Plan and the State Budget for next year is part of the agenda for the parliamentary debates that will resume on Thursday and run until December.