Mozambique’s Net International Reserves (NIR) surged in November to a record US$4.053 billion (€3.484 billion), according to data from the Bank of Mozambique. These reserves—foreign currency assets required to finance the import of goods and services—increased by 1% in September to US$3.937 billion (€3.384 billion), the same level recorded in October, following the previous high of US$4.035 billion (€3.468 billion) in August. From October to November, the reserves grew by 3% to their highest levels ever, covering more than three months of import needs, according to the historical data in the Bank of Mozambique’s statistical report.
Despite this volume of reserves, business leaders complain of limited access to foreign currency in the banking sector, which they need for importing goods, as highlighted in November by Álvaro Massingue, president of the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA) of Mozambique. “The scarcity of foreign currency is now an economic emergency. Without foreign currency, companies cannot import raw materials, fail to meet contracts, and cannot grow.
The State must prioritise access to foreign currency for producing and exporting companies and create incentives for exporters and import substitution,” Massingue said at the opening of the 20th Annual Private Sector Conference (CASP), the country’s largest public-private dialogue and business event. The governor of the central bank, Rogério Zandamela, announced on 31 July that the institution was adopting measures to increase liquidity in the foreign exchange market, attempting to redistribute the available foreign currency volume to guarantee imports. “These measures are nothing more than adjustments here and there, taking resources from some areas and placing them in others, and monitoring the process better,” the governor explained at a press conference in Maputo, at the end of a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (CPMO).
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“An increase in liquidity in the foreign exchange market is expected. To boost sales to the public, the Bank of Mozambique recently reduced the daily retention limits on foreign currency purchased by banks. This measure complements the decision to raise the minimum conversion rate of export revenues from 30% to 50%, which means greater availability of and access to foreign currency,” he added, summarising the meeting’s conclusions. Responding to journalists after the announcement, taking into account business concerns about the lack of access to foreign currency, especially to guarantee imports, Zandamela pointed out that “there was a need to adjust certain liquidity segments.”
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