Angola’s public debt stock rose 16% to $72.1 billion in the first half of this year, up from $61.9 billion in the same period of 2024, representing an increase of $10.1 billion, according to calculations by Expansão based on the execution report of the Annual Borrowing Plan (PAE) published this week by the Public Debt Management Unit (UGD). Compared with the debt stock at the end of 2024, the increase stood at 9%.
The figure reflects central government debt — the total amount the Angolan state owes to domestic and foreign creditors to finance the General State Budget (OGE). These numbers exclude debt held by state-owned enterprises, most notably Sonangol and TAAG, which together had accumulated approximately $2.5 billion in liabilities to their creditors as of the end of the first quarter. The figure for the first half of 2025 has not yet been disclosed.
External debt remains the dominant component, standing at $50.9 billion and representing 71% of the total, with domestic debt accounting for the remaining 29%. The overall increase was driven in part by a 27% rise in domestic public debt, which climbed to $21.1 billion — $4.4 billion more than in the same period a year earlier. Domestic debt is financed primarily by commercial banks, which have shown a growing preference for lending to the state rather than extending credit to the private sector, a dynamic widely known as crowding out.
At the same time, external debt stock rose to $50.9 billion, propelled largely by Angola’s return to international capital markets through new Eurobond issuances completed during the first half of the year.
The first issuance, worth $2.5 billion, was executed in March through a two-tranche placement of sovereign foreign-currency debt on international markets: a $1.5 billion tranche with a seven-year maturity at a coupon rate of 9.25%, and a $1 billion tranche with an 11-year tenor priced at 9.8%.
The second operation came in May, when the government moved to redeem early a portion of its Eurobonds maturing in 2028 and 2029, in an effort to ease near-term debt service pressure and restructure the external debt repayment profile. The transaction, valued at $1.5 billion, also reflects the rising cost of financing for Angola on international markets. In practice, the state is deploying proceeds from earlier bond issuances to buy back outstanding securities still trading in international markets.
Such liability management exercises are a standard tool in sovereign debt management, aimed at reducing payment concentration in the coming years, extending maturities and, in turn, lowering liquidity risk and easing pressure on the public finances.
At the end of the first half of 2025, Eurobond holders were Angola’s largest creditor group, concentrated predominantly in the United Kingdom, which accounts for approximately 22% of the country’s total public debt.
With a debt stock of $72.1 billion, Angola has returned to debt levels last seen before the Covid-19 pandemic, once again surpassing the $72 billion threshold.
Following the shock of the pandemic, the debt stock contracted in 2020 and 2021, before rising again in 2022 — an election year in which government spending has historically tended to increase. The stock subsequently resumed a downward trajectory in 2023, reaching a trough of approximately $59 billion at the end of 2024. Since then, the trend has reversed, with the first half of 2025 marking a significant acceleration in the pace of accumulation.
The return to pre-pandemic debt levels is likely to attract scrutiny from international creditors and investors monitoring Angola’s fiscal consolidation path, particularly given the elevated borrowing costs the country faces on international capital markets, as evidenced by the double-digit coupon rates on its most recent Eurobond tranches.
Source: Expansão
