Angola: a vital but constrained transformation of the economic model in the run-up to the 2022 elections?

The country is therefore approaching the general elections of August 24, 2022 in a changing economic and political environment. Lourenço, who is running for president, will be able to claim that the economic situation has improved during his term. Indeed, 2021 was marked by a return to growth and comfortable external and fiscal surpluses, and it is expected that this performance will be consolidated in 2022. This improvement is mainly due to the rise in oil prices but also, in part, to the incipient transformation of the Angolan economic model. Between the end of 2018 and the end of 2021, Lourenço’s government brought in many reforms with the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These measures are as much about improving the business climate and fighting corruption as they are about increasing the proportion of national revenue that does not come from oil, controlling public spending, and making the exchange rate more flexible.