The persistence of annual inflation at high levels - 25.1% in DEC.2020 and 24.4% in JAN. - should force the National Bank of Angola (BNA) to raise interest rates in the short term. In financial circle, the reference rate is expected to rise from 15.5% - the level since 2019 - to 16%.
At the Government level, concerns have also been mounting that the rise in inflation, and the consequent erosion of the population's purchasing power, may lead to a worsening of the conditions for outbreaks of protests against living conditions, already registered in Luanda and elsewhere in the country, and repressed with violence.
Stifling a greater impact from the rise in oil prices is the sharp decline in oil production, which in JAN. stood at 1.13 million barrels/ day, below OPEC's quota (1.27 million b/ d). READ MORE