Angola | China improves repayment terms

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos presents a wreath to the Monument to the People’s Heroes at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, June 12

The terms of loans granted to Angola by China have been improved, the Angolan Finance Ministry said in a statement adding that it had not requested a moratorium on repayments.
The ministry was referring to news published during the official five-day visit of the President of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, to China, which ended on 13 June, during which he negotiated an increase in China’s financial support to Angola.
The details of this agreement are still unknown and media reports said Angola had requested a two-year moratorium on debt repayments of financial support obtained after the end of civil war in 2002 from Chinese entities.
In a statement cited by Portuguese news agency Lusa, which is the first official information on the agreements with China, the Finance Ministry gave assurances that reports published in the press “are not true.”
The statement said the Angolan ministers who were part of the entourage of José Eduardo dos Santos with their Chinese counterparts analysed “ways to expand fiscal capacity” and to proceed with the implementation of Angola’s National Development Plan, “without compromising the current debt portfolio given the current situation of low oil prices in the international market.”
After discussions between dos Santos and the President of China, Xi Jinping, China announced it would help Angola financially to “overcome difficulties” created by the collapse of oil prices and the resulting “reduction in government revenue.”  MDT/Macauhub