Ernesto Gove, Mozambique’s central bank governor, is hardly alone in being bullish about his country’s future. Global investors also see the south-east African state as one of the brightest prospects in the region. Thanks to the recent discovery of huge reserves of coal and natural gas, foreign investment has soared. And growth in gross domestic product (GDP), which was about 7% in 2013, is forecast to exceed 8% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mr Gove, who has been governor of the Banco de Moçambique since 2006, doubts this buoyancy will be short-lived. “With the environment we’re building – one that will enable both domestic and foreign investors to invest – the conditions are there for growth to be sustained,” he tells The Banker in the Mozambican capital of Maputo. “The macroeconomic environment is stable. The currency is stable. Inflation is less than 5%.”
