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The
multi-lateral lender announced the move late on Thursday. The
International Monetary Fund originally approved the facility
totaling $3.7 billion in December 2018 to help Angola manage
twin budget and balance of payments crises after tanking global
crude prices ripped a hole in its revenues.
Angola is Africa's second biggest oil exporter and relies on
sales of the fossil fuel for about 65% of total tax revenue, but
a combination slack crude prices and years of mismanagement at
state oil-producer Sonangol have left it struggling for funds.
The IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) is a loan pegged on deep
structural, macroeconomic and governance reforms designed to
help countries with weak economic growth and problems paying
bills.
In a statement, the fund said Angola had made progress in
reducing state spending and broadening economic activity outside
of oil, but that the economic outlook was still uncertain and it
had to do more to fight mismanagement and corruption.
"The authorities' commitment to fiscal consolidation has been
illustrated by the outperformance of the end-June 2019 non-oil
primary fiscal deficit target by a wide margin," said Tao Zhang,
IMF deputy managing director and acting chairman.
"To ... mitigate the elevated risks to debt sustainability, the
authorities need to persevere with measures to mobilize non-oil
revenue ... and bolster transparency ... of state-owned
enterprises."
A part of President João Lourenço's sweeping reforms is an
ambitious plan to selloff key state assets, including stakes in
Sonangol and more than 100 other enterprises.
(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Tim Cocks)
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