Washington, Oct. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday that Portuguese-language countries in Africa will have to tighten fiscal policy and focus on structural reforms to accelerate economic growth.
"In the short and medium term, these countries are going to have to tighten fiscal policy, which has to be disciplined and prudent in order to reduce the level of high debt and bring the debt to a downward trajectory," said the deputy head of the regional studies division of the IMF's African department, which forecasts a debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 65% at regional level.
In an interview with Lusa, António David pointed out that "what can help to do this is greater revenue mobilisation, through digitalisation, better inspection and integration of customs systems with the tax authority".
"In tax policy itself, reducing tax exemptions and increasing taxes on real estate, land and buildings" is also part of the formula for achieving this goal, he said.
For this economist, who is one of the main authors of the report on the economies of sub-Saharan Africa, which is being released today as part of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, Lusophone countries must bring "more transparency, availability of data and improvements to the public finance system to help lower the cost of financing and access innovative financing mechanisms".
The IMF predicts growth in most of the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP), except Equatorial Guinea, which is expected to suffer a 1.6% recession this year.
Asked why the economic forecasts had improved compared to April, when the IMF released its Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa, António David said that the main factor was that the trade war that had been predicted did not materialise, improving the macroeconomic and commercial outlook for the region.
"What has changed since April is the resilience of the region and the external scenario which, although difficult, is less negative than we imagined in April; trade tensions are less acute, the level of tariffs imposed by the United States is lower than in April, there has been no general retaliation and we don"t see a trade war that could have happened, there have been no protectionist measures and, although the scenario is not favourable, it is less challenging than we expected in April," said the IMF economist.
The sub-Saharan African region is expected to grow by 4.1% this year, the same as last year, before accelerating to 4.4% next year.
Compared to April, the IMF has revised its growth forecast for these economies upwards this year, from 3.6% to 4.1%.
YEAR 2025..................PIB.......INFLATION
ANGOLA.....................2.1.........21.6
CABO VERDE.................5.2 .........1.5
GUINEA-BISSAU..............5.1..........2.0
EQUATORIAL GUINEA.........-1.6..........2.9
MOZAMBIQUE.................2.5 .........4.9
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE......2.9..........9.7
SOURCE: World Economic Outlook, October 2025
MBA // ANP
Lusa/Fim
