O MILAGRE MOÇAMBICANO

PIB em Moçambique 1991-2006

Extractos de um artigo meu (em inglês) sobre o milagre económico moçambicano:

"In Mozambique, peacebuilding went in tandem with economic reform. The timid policies of the 1980s gave way to sweeping structural reforms, macroeconomic stability and the promotion of foreign direct investment in the 1990s. In part, it could be argued that the reform program was implemented because there was no other credible alternative... The protracted war, the sluggish economy and the onset of a severe drought in 1991/92 left the country on the verge of a critical humanitarian crisis. In 1992, Mozambique was host to “26 UN agencies, 6 multilateral non-UN agencies, 44 bilateral donors, official agencies from 35 countries, and 143 external NGOs from 23 countries”.

The economic recovery of Mozambique is nothing short of amazing, especially when we remember that, for decades, this was a country caught in conflict and poverty traps. After 1992, the growth of Mozambican GDP averaged rates above 8 per cent, and, between 1991 and 2004, GDP per capita (in purchasing power parity) grew at an annual rate of 7.8 percent, implying an increase in income per capita from US$615 to US$1,641, even though, in 2000, the country registered its worst floods on record. According to the latest Africa Economic Indicators, between 2000 and 2005, Mozambique had the second highest rate of per capita growth in the non-oil African countries, with an average growth of 5.3 percent per year, just slightly below than Botswana (with 5.6 percent growth). Mozambique also had the second highest rate of growth of agriculture value added in Africa during the same period. Industrial value added has been growing at rates higher than 10 per cent per year since the early 1990s. Value added in the services sector has been growing at rates averaging almost 8 percent per annum since 2000.

Although all sectors of the economy registered high growth rates, the industrial sector has had particularly an outstanding performance with rates of growth averaging more than 20 per cent per year. This industrial growth was mostly due to the great dynamism of the aluminum sector, as well as construction. Agriculture and services have also reached annual average rates above 6 per cent, thanks to the growth of Mozambique’s traditional crash crops as well as other crops."

A continuar...