The national business sector reported revenue losses estimated at $1.1 billion last year due to the negative impact of the new coronavirus pandemic. About 38.3% of the total losses were due to reduced business hours.
The data were advanced yesterday, in Maputo, by the president of the Confederation
of Mozambique Economic Associations (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, during the economic briefing on the business performance and perspectives for 2021.
According to Vuma, due to limitations on the operating time of companies, resulting from measures that required the adoption of a rotation regime of the workforce, companies lost about 885 hours of effective operation, which resulted in the loss of about US$422 million in turnover.
The other 61.7% of the revenue loss volume was due to the significant drop in aggregate demand, the drop in the general price level, among other factors.
Additionally, Vuma pointed out that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some 40,000 jobs were lost.
40,000 jobs were lost and about 1075 companies closed down.
The source recalled that, the year 2021 begins with the emergence of a new wave of spread of the covid-19 pandemic, which led the Government to enact new restrictive measures.
These measures, coupled with continued currency depreciation, rising interest rates, the effect of natural calamities, and insecurity in some parts of the country cause the outlook for business performance in the first quarter of this year to be revised downward.
He added that the cost of capital is expected to increase in the first quarter of 2020, incorporating the effect of the 300bp monetary policy interest rate (MIMO) hike announced by the Bank of Mozambique in January 2021.
“Therefore, in view of the scenario that we saw in Q4 2020, coupled with the first impressions that we gathered at the beginning of 2021, we envision that, overall, the macroeconomic environment will continue to deteriorate in this Q1,” he said.
With regard to the business environment, the CTA president said he expects
that some normative instruments, relevant for the business sector, will be introduced, namely the mining law, regulation for internet providers and users, foreign exchange law, and the law for the State Financial Administration System.
