The Angolan economy is smiling big as it exported more than 98.3 million barrels of crude oil just in the first quarter of 2022.
In the announcement, made Tuesday by the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas, it was said the gross revenue now totals over 10 billion U.S. dollars.
According to official data, the average price of crude oil stood at 103 dollars, an increase of 67 percent over the same period last year, while the export volume fell 0.21 percent year on year.
Many thanks to China, the recipient of Angola’s main oil export, followed by India and France, the Southwestern African nation’s economy witnessed a boost.
South Africa, Portugal, the United States, Canada, Italy, Britain, and Thailand also imported oil from the southern African nation, it added.
Angola, Africa’s third-biggest oil producer despite extensive oil and gas resources, diamonds, hydroelectric potential, and rich agricultural land, remains a struggling nation depending largely on agriculture, contrary to the country’s glorious past as one of the fastest-growing in the world, with reported annual average GDP growth of 11.1 percent from 2001 to 2010.
Angola’s economic growth is expected to accelerate to 2.9% this year from an estimated 0.1% in 2021, boosted by higher oil prices and relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, the International Monetary Fund had previously said. The country has been in recession since 2016.