The more realistic among Angola’s commercial and financial leaders believe that, in the future, the fall in oil prices that brought the country’s spending boom to a grinding halt in 2009 will probably be seen as a blessing for the country’s economy.
It did not seem so at the time. The collapse in oil prices in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009 slashed revenue. The government was forced to cut capital spending, particularly on infrastructure, it was unable to pay its creditors, foreign exchange reserves were used to enable the country to function, while both the budget and current account plunged into the red.
