Public coffers collected 590.7 billion Kz more than projected in the 2024 General State Budget (OGE), while spending was nearly 122.0 billion Kz below plan. As a result, the initially forecasted 1.5% budget deficit did not materialize. Higher-than-expected petroleum tax revenues, which executed at 129% of the OGE 2024 projection, offset difficulties in securing external financing, leaving the 2024 accounts with a surplus of 712.6 billion Kz, equivalent to around $800 million USD.
According to the 2024 General State Accounts, published this week on the Ministry of Finance website — which continues its commitment to early release of these reports — government spending last year totaled nearly 24.6 trillion Kz, 122.0 billion Kz below the 24.7 trillion Kz planned in the OGE. While current expenditures slightly exceeded projections (execution at 102%), mainly due to overspending on services (+676.0 billion Kz above plan), capital expenditures were lower, especially financial capital expenditures (-1.2 trillion Kz below projection), related to public debt repayments and state capital injections in public companies. This resulted in an underexecution of investments.
On the revenue side, execution significantly exceeded projections, reaching 102% — 590.7 billion Kz more than expected in OGE 2024. Current revenues from taxes executed at 121%, equivalent to 3.1 trillion Kz above budget. About 73% of this excess came from petroleum taxes, while 15% came from other taxes such as IRT or VAT. According to the 2024 General State Accounts, this growth in petroleum revenue benefited mainly from the kwanza’s depreciation against the dollar and from higher-than-expected average export prices. The average price per barrel exported from Angola was $79.7, $14.7 above the $65 forecast in the budget. However, this was slightly lower than the $81.5 average price in 2023. Angola produced an average of 1.124 million barrels per day, above the 1.097 million in 2023, and exported 17.7 million more barrels than in 2023.
While tax revenues “rescued” the OGE 2024, capital revenue fell short, executing only 75% of the projection — 2.5 trillion Kz less than planned. External financing was again to blame, as of the 6.2 trillion Kz projected in the OGE, only 2.8 trillion Kz was secured, representing just 45% execution. Internally, the government exceeded expectations by 874.1 billion Kz, an execution of 123%.
In total, the 2024 budget recorded a surplus of 712.6 billion Kz, contrary to the government’s initial 1.5% GDP deficit forecast.
Education Underfunded, Defense Overspent
By sector, the trend of overspending on Defense and Security and underspending on Education and Health continued. Total expenditure in Education was 1.2 trillion Kz (78% execution), while Health spending reached 1.3 trillion Kz (96% execution), one of the highest budget executions ever recorded in this area. This meant the government spent 345.5 billion Kz less on Education and 48.2 billion Kz less on Health than projected.
Meanwhile, Defense and Security saw a new budget overrun, with execution reaching 145%. While 1.7 trillion Kz was planned, actual spending exceeded 2.5 trillion Kz, 779.4 billion above budget.
However, for the first time, spending on Education and Health combined slightly exceeded Defense and Security by 21.2 billion Kz. Out of the total 24.6 trillion Kz spent, Education accounted for 5.0% and Health 5.3% — far below Angola’s international commitments of 20% for Education and 15% for Health. Combined, Education and Health represented only 10.3% of executed expenditures, while Defense and Security accounted for 10.2%.
Source: Expansão
