By Joe Brock
LUANDA – A halving of oil prices last year has increased hardship in Angola, one of the world’s most unequal countries, and stirred resentment towards President Eduardo dos Santos, the leader of Africa’s second largest crude exporter for the last 36 years.
Angola’s government, which relies on oil sales for 95 percent of foreign exchange revenues, slashed a third off its budget after a glut in global production caused a halving of oil prices last year.
Dos Santos’ government ended petrol subsidies last month to release the burden on the Treasury, a move supported by economists but resented by the poor who felt the effects of a 30 percent rise in fuel prices.
The central bank also restricted dollar sales as foreign exchange supplies dried up, prompting a sharp decline in the kwanza currency, ramping up costs in a country that relies on imports for 80 percent of consumer goods.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
The kwanza is trading at 170 against the dollar on the street, compared with 109 officially.
“The government treats us like dogs,” said Claude Ambrosio, 29, swatting flies swarming around the dried fish she sells at her a rundown market in Vianna, one of Luanda’s poorest suburbs.
“The price of everything went up but we get no help. There are no schools, no hospitals and you can see how we live,” Ambrosio said, pointing to crumbling shacks and piles of rotting rubbish.
Annual growth in Africa’s third largest economy has averaged around 10 percent as the country rebuilt after a 27-year civil war ended in 2002 but the IMF predicts growth will fall to 4.5 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2016.
(Reuters)