Mozambique’s PM Carlos Rosário predicts 4.7% economic growth in 2019

Mozambique Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario has predicted a 4.7 percent economic growth for the East African country in 2019, pushed by agriculture and mining." The government's economic and social plan for 2019 envisages a growth rate of 4.7 per cent driven by agriculture and the extractive industry", he told the country's parliament on Tuesday, while presenting the government's economic and social plan for next year.

Among the main contributors to this will be the graphite mines in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, where production is expected to increase by over 273 per cent; rubies up by 92 per cent; tantalite 91 per cent increase; and coking coal up by 18 per cent.

Do Rosario said agriculture is forecast to grow at 5.5 per cent in 2019, and there should be a 12 per cent growth in grain production to 3.5 million tonnes, and a 13 per cent rise in root crops mostly cassava to 16.9 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has downgraded Mozambique's growth forecast to 3.4 percent this and next year, against the previous forecast of 3.8 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2019.

"In Mozambique, the low prospects of a rapid resolution of the debt problem, as well as the continuation of political instability between the major parties, translates into low levels of investment and domestic demand, leading to a deterioration of the perspectives in the short term, so GDP growth in 2018 and 2019 has been downgraded to 3.4 percent," the Africa Economic Affairs analyst at the United Nations Helena Afonso told APA.

With inputs from agency.