Angola has secured three years of payment relief from Chinese creditors and expects to get more than $700 million in its next tranche of International Monetary Fund financing in the coming days, its finance minister said on Monday.
Africa’s second-largest oil exporter has been seeking payment relief as it strives to overcome the hit from the coronavirus pandemic, heavy debt service requirements and volatility in the oil sector.
Angola owes more than $20 billion to a number of Chinese entities, including $14.5 billion to the China Development Bank and nearly $5 billion to the Export-Import Bank of China. It has also borrowed from China’s largest lender, ICBC, according to analysts’ calculations.
“We’ve got three years of breathing space and we will take the best advantage of that,” Vera Daves de Sousa said in an interview for the Reuters Next conference.
Angola had been transparent with the IMF on its negotiations with the Chinese, she said.
The IMF’s executive board will meet on Monday to decide on the latest review of Angola’s programme with the Fund. Angola has so far received about $2.5 billion from the IMF as part of its largest funding programme in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We are expecting more than $700 million,” Daves de Sousa said. It forms part of a $3.7 billion programme under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility approved in December 2018.
