Mozambique: Change is in the air
The extension of a cease-fire and progress made to secure investments in natural gas reserves in the country’s north give Mozambicans reason to hope
The extension of the cease-fire announced in January between the Mozambican armed forces and opposition guerrillas is holding — and a peace process appears imminent. At the same time, progress on exploiting Mozambique’s gas reserves has helped dispel some of the gloom over the country’s debt crisis. The change of mood has been embraced as a signal that Mozambique could return to high growth. Despite the country ranking 180 out of 188 on the UN’s human development index, its economy was growing at 7%-8% of GDP by the mid-2010s through liberalisation. In September 2015 Mozambique was declared free of land mines. Meanwhile, the discovery in 2010 of offshore gas reserves — at 2.8 trillion-5 trillion m³, the biggest find in the world in a decade — promised the country an influx of US$100bn in investment. This, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated, would make Mozambique the third-largest liquid natural gas (LNG) exporter within a decade.
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