Maputo — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomes the efforts being made by Mozambican government to improve people's living standard and stabilise economic and social development indicators.

According to the IMF's resident representative in Maputo, Alexis Cirkel, despite the adversities caused by the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which broke out over eight months ago, Mozambique has continued to show a positive economic recovery since last April.

"Economic growth of 4.1 and 4.6 percent in the first two quarters not only demonstrates excellent dynamics but also good quality based on a remarkable development of the services sector, agriculture and mining," said the IMF representative", speaking on Wednesday (02), in Maputo, during the 10ª edição do Economic Briefing: Desempenho Empresarial do III Trimestre de 2022 e Perspectivas (10th edition of the Economic Briefing on Business Performance in Q3 2022 and Outlook).

Resumption of direct funding of the State Budget is one of the signs of prudent management which helped to restore the trust between Mozambique, the World Bank and the IMF.

Therefore, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, according to Cirkel, the Mozambican authorities must continue to implement ambitious economic reform agendas.

He also pointed to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, political uncertainties, tighter financial conditions, which caused volatility in the price of goods in the international market.

For Cirkel, the right measures taken by the government, which include the massive vaccination campaign against Covid-19, prudent fiscal and macroeconomic management, and the rise of the main export products, all impacted positively to bring the country to a positive growth path.

He also noted prudence of public administration in the face of fiscal pressure imposed by the shocks that hit the country, the initiative underway to approve the Sovereign Fund Law, the reform of public sector salaries, among other initiatives.

Lw/sg