LUANDA — Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos fired the finance minister, Armando Manuel, on Monday two months after the government of Africa’s biggest oil producer broke off talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over emergency funding.A statement said Manuel, who was appointed in 2013 and whose term had been due to run to 2017, would be replaced by capital markets commission head Augusto Archer de Sousa Hose, more commonly known as Archer Mangueira.Over the past two years, Manuel had presided over an economic slump caused by a sharp drop in oil prices that sapped dollar inflows, hammered the kwanza and prompted heavy government borrowing.The kwanza slid more than 30% against the dollar in 2015, and in January the central bank allowed for another 15% weakening to 155 against the dollar.The currency was bid at 165 to the dollar on Monday, according to Thomson Reuters data. On the black market, it has been trading as low as 600.Before his appointment, Mangueira was pre...
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