Maputo, 6 May (AIM) – Mozambican Minister of Finance, Carla Louveira, has guaranteed that the government is implementing measures to solve the shortage of foreign currency, (particularly US dollars.)
The country’s Confederation of Business Associations (CTA) has been warning that the shortage of foreign currency is one of the main constraints on the efficient operation of productive sectors, particularly manufacturing, commercial agriculture, tourism, mining, and logistics.
According to the minister, who was addressing the deputies in the country’s Parliament, Assembly of the Republic, Mozambique must produce and sell more goods and services abroad in order to receive foreign currency used to pay for imports.
According to Louveira, a country’s main source of foreign exchange is exports, which means that the economy must produce and sell more goods and services abroad in order to receive foreign currency used to pay for imports.
“It is necessary to recognize that we are facing a challenging situation of foreign exchange shortage, resulting from the following main factors: export-oriented production below imports; the impact of the post-election demonstrations of 2024; and changes in the international financial architecture”, she said.
“The post-election protests resulted in the destruction of public and private infrastructure and the business sector, increasing uncertainty and reducing the economy’s capacity to generate foreign currency”, she added.
She explained that another factor contributing to the shortage of foreign currency is the change in the international financial architecture, with the flow of external resources increasingly being focused on public-private partnership investments at the expense of general support for the State Budget.
“This factor also contributes to the challenging situation regarding the availability of foreign currency in the country”, she said.
The minister revealed that the Required Reserve Ratio in Foreign Currency was reduced by 10 percentage points on January 27th (from 39.5 to 29.5 percent).
She also said that, in the first quarter of 2026, banks sold 3.5 billion US dollars to the public, “a similar value that has been sold in the same period over the last five years.”
“The volume of foreign exchange transactions between banks and the public (exporters and importers) remained at approximately 3.5 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2026, in line with the average for the same period of the last five years, around 3.3 billion dollars”, the minister said.
The minister also called for a need to comply with the guidelines regarding the opening and operation of accounts abroad by nationals.
“The government continues to monitor and coordinate with the national financial system to ensure the availability of foreign currency to meet the needs for paying invoices and issuing bank guarantees for fuel, paying invoices for food and medicine products as priority items, with other external payment needs being addressed subsequently”, she said.
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