Oil to push Angola GDP to 31%

DAKAR – Fresh oil flows from new offshore fields will more than double Angola’s economic growth to 31,4 per cent in 2007, an International Monetary Fund Africa economist said on Tuesday.

Huge oil investment since decades of devastating war ended in 2002 has helped spur high economic growth rates in the southwest African country, with American and Chinese companies eager to find alternative supplies to the volatile Middle East. “Thirty-one percent growth is a reflection of the fact that they’re going to have a surge in oil output in 2007.New fields are coming on stream, especially in the offshore area,” Sanjeev Gupta, assistant director of the IMF Africa department, told Reuters.Gupta was speaking after presenting the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook to bankers, economists and journalists in Senegal, following its publication at the World Bank/IMF joint meetings in Singapore last month.The Fund’s 31,4 per cent forecast for Angola’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is far and away the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where no other country is forecast to hit double figures.Gupta said oil accounted for some 60 per cent of Angola’s economy, and the Fund projected the non-oil component of economic growth would remain close to the 7,4 per cent projected for 2006.Overall growth for 2006 is projected at 14,3 per cent, down from 20,6 per cent the previous year.Angola is sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest oil producer after Nigeria and industry analysts say Angola is on course to meet a crude oil output target of two million barrels per day by 2008, from around 1,4 million now.Nampa-Reuters”Thirty-one percent growth is a reflection of the fact that they’re going to have a surge in oil output in 2007.New fields are coming on stream, especially in the offshore area,” Sanjeev Gupta, assistant director of the IMF Africa department, told Reuters.Gupta was speaking after presenting the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook to bankers, economists and journalists in Senegal, following its publication at the World Bank/IMF joint meetings in Singapore last month.The Fund’s 31,4 per cent forecast for Angola’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is far and away the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where no other country is forecast to hit double figures.Gupta said oil accounted for some 60 per cent of Angola’s economy, and the Fund projected the non-oil component of economic growth would remain close to the 7,4 per cent projected for 2006.Overall growth for 2006 is projected at 14,3 per cent, down from 20,6 per cent the previous year.Angola is sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest oil producer after Nigeria and industry analysts say Angola is on course to meet a crude oil output target of two million barrels per day by 2008, from around 1,4 million now.Nampa-Reuters