With the world economy in the doldrums and renewed questions over the heavy debt burden facing emerging markets in the post-Covid-19 era, the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings felt like a chance for policymakers to catch their breath and plot a way forward. For Mário Augusto Caetano João, Angola’s minister of economy and planning, the trip was certainly that – but also a chance to seal Angola’s maturing ties with multilateral lenders. Speaking to African Business during a busy round of engagements in DC, where he previously worked for three years as a World Bank advisor, João says that Angola’s shift from a state-planned economy under the presidency of João Lourenço has brought the country into much closer cooperation with the multilaterals. “We were a centrally planned economy and we’re now making sure that the private sector is at the centre of the economy. It’s a dramatic change, but we are ready for that.”

Angola’s Minister of Economy and Planning says Relations with the IMF and World Bank Will Sustain Reform Path
- AFRICA TOP 10
- 1 min read