The Ministry of Finance of Mozambique has released its 2024 public debt report, highlighting that by the end of last year, “the state’s arrears were exclusively related to external debt,” with no delays observed in the payment of domestic debt service. The report specifies arrears totaling 3.4 billion meticais (47.3 million euros), consisting of 2.95 billion meticais (40.5 million euros) in principal and 492.28 million meticais (6.8 million euros) in interest, amounts that have been deferred to 2025. Portugal emerged as the largest bilateral creditor, with total arrears amounting to 1.818,76 million meticais (25.3 million euros).
The document also mentions significant multilateral creditors, including the International Monetary Fund, which is owed 718.75 million meticais (10 million euros).
The report further explains that “the observed delay mainly resulted from limited revenue collection influenced by the post-election instability,” which persisted for five months following the Mozambican general elections on October 9, a period marked by strong opposition contestation.
Additionally, the report notes, the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE) did not fully anticipate the necessary amounts for covering the 2024 debt service, budgeting 115.097,89 million meticais (1.602 billion euros) against a forecast of 123.433,58 million meticais (1.718 billion euros), leading to a deficit of 8.335,69 million meticais (116 million euros), causing a carryover of obligations to the following year.
The report admits to “distortions in projections caused by the limitations of the former debt management system, CS-DRMS,” which led to deviations from the 2024 approved ceiling and resulted in default interest incidences.
“The transition of these amounts to 2025 implies additional pressure on the state’s treasury, given the increased financial commitments that must be honored in the next budget year [2025]. This challenging scenario underscores the urgent need to implement effective measures to mitigate risks associated with debt service and optimize financial flows within the state.”
The report further notes that by the end of 2024, the outstanding external debt stock includes “pending commitments with four bilateral creditors that do not consider debt relief terms agreed upon with the Paris Club,” including Libya, with 253.38 million dollars (225.2 million euros), Angola, with 61.45 million dollars (54.6 million euros), Bulgaria, with 57.8 million dollars (51.3 million euros), and Poland, with 21.7 million dollars (19.2 million euros), totaling 394.33 million dollars (350.4 million euros).
“The Government remains committed to negotiations with these creditors to obtain coordinated solutions for the regularization of these financial responsibilities,” the report notes, recalling the “debt relief consensus reached with Iraq” last year, with an 80% reduction equivalent to 256.13 million dollars (227.6 million euros) of the total 320.16 million dollars (284.5 million euros), and rescheduling the remaining 20% over a 15-year period from 2029 to 2043.
