Angola’s average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 2018-2022, at US$ 166, will be insufficient to keep pace with the country’s “staggering population growth”, according to the Angola/2017 Economic Report.

The document, produced by Catholic University of Angola and published on Monday in Luanda, projects that the economy will grow at an average rate of 2.8% in the period under analysis, which compares with a demographic growth rate of 3.1%.

According to Angolan state news agency Angop, the GDP/inhabitant figures presented by the director of the Centre for Studies and Scientific Research of the Catholic University of Angola, Alves da Rocha, are well below the US$240 forecast in the 2016 report.

The report adds that population growth is not being accompanied by economic growth due to a crisis and reduced investments in oil production, the country’s main export product.

Contrasting with official data indicating a poverty rate of 36%, the report from the Catholic University offers up an incidence rate of 52.1%, due to the fact that GDP growth has not kept pace with population growth.

Economic researcher Heitor de Carvalho, who also participated in the study, said that total public interest-free spending from 2014 to 2017 decreased by 64%, with subsidy reductions of 92%, 73% in government purchases, 48% in benefits and 41% in remuneration.

The Angola/2017 Economic Report, in its 15th annual edition, addresses issues related to economic diversification, income distribution, GDP, poverty, fiscal and monetary policy, among other important issues of the Angolan economy. (macauhub)