Angola: Economic sentiment improves marginally but remains in negative territory
The economic climate indicator (ICE, Indicador de Clima Económico) published by the Statistical Institute rose from minus 15 points in the previous quarter to minus 14 points in the first quarter of this year. Despite the improvement, the index remained entrenched in negative territory, where it has been since Q3 2015.
The first quarter’s slight uptick was driven by improved sentiment in the external and transport sectors. However, the improvements were nearly fully offset by deteriorations across the remaining economic sectors, most prominently the manufacturing, extractive and tourism industries—all of which saw notable deteriorations in sentiment from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, sentiment in the construction and communication sectors remained virtually flat in Q1 from the previous quarter.
As a result, and despite the slight improvement in the headline figure, economic sentiment in all seven sectors surveyed remained below their respective long-term averages, signaling that the underlying fundamentals of the economy remain weak.