Angola and China to accept national currencies in bilateral trade

Chinese one-hundred yuan banknotes

The central banks of Angola and China are due to settle the details of an agreement that will allow the use of national currencies of both countries in bilateral trade, said the governor of the National Bank of Angola.
José Pedro de Morais told Radio Nacional de Angola that the agreement, whose signing date he did not mention, would bring many advantages when it comes into force.
The agreement, which was announced last August by the Minister of Commerce of Angola, Rosa Pacavira, but later denied, will enable economic agents of both countries to use the Chinese currency in Angola and the Angolan currency in China, thus facilitating trade.
“These days the international financial institutions support this type of agreement, because it allows foreign trade to continue without using a third currency, which in this case would be the dollar,” stressed José Pedro de Morais.
The governor said, however, that in the long term the costs of Angola importing consumer goods are unsustainable, given the lack of foreign currency in the market at the moment.
Morais said the cycle marked by “ever higher incomes, both for families and for businesses” had come to an end and noted that the price of oil of over US$100 per barrel had ended, “and it’s no longer possible to think in these terms.”
The governor of the BNA said the time had come to “think about how to create and identify new sources of growth, particularly in agriculture and the transfer of resources used in the import of consumer goods to sectors that allow more sustained growth.”  MDT/Macauhub