Luanda, July 3, 2024 (Lusa) - The Angolan economy grew by 4.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2015, the Angolan National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Wednesday.

According to the Rapid Information Sheet (FIR) referring to the National Accounts for the 1st quarter of 2024, compared to the previous quarter the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.1%, considering the seasonally adjusted series, with positive performances from construction, transport and storage, as well as the oil and natural gas sector, which stands out the most.

GDP in the first quarter of this year totalled 18,327,957 million kwanzas (around €19 billion), of which 180,473 million kwanzas (€195 million) was due to taxes on products, net of subsidies.

The activities that contributed most to the performance of economic activity in this period, according to INE, were the extraction and refining of crude oil and natural gas, with 30.4%, and trade (26.8%).

Agriculture and forestry (7.7%), other services (8.3%), manufacturing products (5.5%), construction (5.5%), fishing (4.9%) and real estate services (3.4%) also made positive contributions, as did public administration, defence and compulsory social security (1.8%).

Accumulated GDP over the last four quarters grew by 2.1%, thanks to the performance of agricultural and forestry activities, fisheries, oil extraction and refining, diamond extraction, electricity and water, trade, financial and insurance intermediation, real estate services and rental and other services.

 The IMF forecasts growth of 2.6% this year and 3.1% next year for Angola's economy, below the 3.8% and 4% estimated for the sub-Saharan African region.

RCR/AYLS // AYLS

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