Economy grows by nearly 15 percent

The Mozambican economy has grown by nearly 15 percent in the first half of this year, with the Mozambique Aluminium Mozal smelter contributing an estimated 4 percent, state radio reported on Monday. Planning and Finance Minister Luisa Diogo told a press conference in Maputo on Friday that the accumulated inflation for that period was 5.1 percent. Diogo noted that there has been a decline in the prices of basic commodities, and this could contribute to the stability of the metical (the Mozambican currency). She expressed concern about the depreciation of the metical, which in the past two months had depreciated by an estimated 25 percent. Diogo told the state broadcaster: "The agricultural sector was the main contributor to our growth rate with 5.2 per cent. Cash crops, notably cotton, copra and sugar, were the main contributors. There was a decline of between 1 and 2 per cent in corn production. This is not an alarming situation but we should keep an eye on our food security system. Farmers have been able to mark their corn production and if we are not very careful about our food security system, we could experience problems in some parts the country."