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(Bloomberg) — Angolan President Joao Lourenco’s anti-corruption drive is losing steam, threatening the country’s economic growth outlook, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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The oil-producing African nation’s progress on fiscal transparency has stalled, high-profile investigations are languishing and some opinion surveys are reporting rising corruption perceptions, the IMF said in a report on Tuesday.
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“Moreover, notwithstanding some recent improvements in the legal framework, Angola was once again added to the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list of countries with anti-money laundering/countering terrorism financing weaknesses,” it said.
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The report comes after Angola held talks with the IMF about possible financing packages last month. Africa’s third-biggest oil producer is struggling to tap international bond markets after its borrowing costs soared on the back of trade wars and a slump in energy prices.
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When Lourenco came to power in 2017 he put fighting graft at center stage, pledging to dismantle corrupt business networks that had plagued the nation under his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The crackdown began with a series of arrests that extended to the Dos Santos family and its allies, accused of amassing fortunes through their grip on the nation’s oil industry for nearly four decades.
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The anti-corruption drive earned Lourenco, a former minister of defense under Dos Santos, the nickname “The Terminator.” He won a second term as president in 2022.
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Now, the IMF says that the “strong momentum observed through 2022 has abated.” The Washington-based lender said that gaps in most governance indicators relative to peers remain “sizable” and that perceptions of corruption, which had fallen significantly through 2023, are on the rise again.
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“Closing these gaps is expected to deliver higher economic growth,” said the IMF. “To some extent, this assessment reflects an uneven reform progress and, in the case of fiscal transparency, reversal.”
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