In 2018 Angola will be the sub-Saharan African country to issue the second-largest amount of public debt, with a total of US$15.9 billion, exceeded only by South Africa, which will take on another US$18.7 billion in debt, according to credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P).
The report on the debt levels of African countries said that the amount of debt to be issued by Angola is an increase of 26.5% over the amount recorded in 2017 and is the highest since 2014 when the country went to the markets to raise US$17.3 billion.
The report on the 17 countries the agency rates in that region of the world shows that these countries will increase their debt levels by another US$57 billion this year.
This is an increase of 7.4% compared to the US$53 billion in debt issued last year and proves that the commodity price crisis, which began in 2014, continues to have a strong effect on these natural resource-dependent economies to balance their budgets.
For the whole of Africa, S&P expects commercial debt to reach US$392 billion by the end of this year and total debt to rise to US$514 billion.
Source: Macauhub
