Angola Company & Beneficial Ownership Directory

Analysis

What this data actually tells you about Angola

Angola is a lower-middle-income, oil-dependent economy undergoing a genuine but uneven diversification. According to Angola’s National Institute of Statistics, real GDP grew 3.13% for full-year 2025, with growth accelerating to 5.7% year-on-year in Q4 2025 alone, driven by non-oil activity (transport, digital services, manufacturing, mining, fisheries) while the oil sector contracted 1.21% for the year. By Q4 2025, the non-oil sector represented 80.91% of GDP versus 19.09% for oil, though the African Development Bank’s early-2025 estimate put oil nearer 28.9% of GDP and 95% of exports, illustrating how fast this ratio is moving and how much it depends on measurement timing. Government officials have said 2026 could be the first year non-oil fiscal revenue, an estimated 10.6 trillion kwanzas, roughly $11.4 billion, exceeds oil revenue. Forecasts for 2026 diverge by institution: the IMF’s May 2026 Article IV consultation points to growth in the 2.1-2.3% range, while the World Bank projects average growth of 2.9% for 2025-27 and the African Development Bank projects 2.9% in 2026 and 3.3% in 2027. Angola’s total GDP was approximately $122.17 billion in 2025 with GDP per capita of roughly $3,130. The currency, the kwanza (AOA), has been free-floating since 2023 and traded around 917.5 AOA/USD in mid-2026, essentially flat over the prior 12 months after a period of sharp depreciation. Inflation has fallen sharply and consistently: annual CPI inflation eased to 9.33% in July 2026 from 10.11% in June and 14.56% in January 2026, marking a 24th consecutive month of deceleration attributed to kwanza stability and improved domestic supply. Moody’s affirmed Angola’s B3 rating but revised the outlook from Positive to Stable in December 2024, citing a slower pace of budget consolidation and public debt remaining close to 60% of GDP through 2026.

Angola’s export base remains heavily concentrated: crude oil, petroleum gas, and unset diamonds together accounted for 87.4% of total 2025 export value. Oil alone generated an estimated $24.5 billion in 2025 revenue and natural gas $3.24 billion. China is by far Angola’s largest trading partner, absorbing roughly 43% of exports, followed by India (10.8%), Indonesia (5.8%) and Spain (5.6%); on the import side China ($2.45 billion), Portugal ($1.28 billion), the UK ($989 million), India ($805 million) and the US ($770 million) lead. FDI trends are genuinely mixed: a study reported by Ver Angola/Lusa in May 2026 found total FDI stock and inflow figures fell 59% over nine years, from $29.4 billion in 2017 to $12.2 billion in 2025, reflecting eroded investor confidence and regulatory unpredictability, though the same reporting notes incipient signs of recovery. Non-oil FDI specifically hit a record $959.4 million in 2025, up from $353.5 million in 2024 and just $123.9 million in 2023. The government’s privatization program has raised $1.1 billion to date and continues through 2026, and Shell’s 2025 return to Angola, with a stated $1 billion investment in new oil blocks, is being cited as a signal of renewed international confidence. Regionally, the most strategically significant development is the Lobito Corridor, the 1,300-plus km railway linking the Angolan Atlantic port of Lobito to copper and cobalt-producing regions of the DRC and onward to Zambia. As of Q4 2026 the railway rehabilitation was reported at roughly 67% complete; in July 2026 the DRC government approved a partnership with Portuguese contractor Mota-Engil for full rehabilitation of the DRC-side line. A $553 million US DFC loan, finalized December 2025, plus a $200 million Development Bank of Southern Africa tranche brought that financing package to $753 million, while the EU is mobilizing over €2 billion via its Global Gateway initiative. This sits alongside, and in explicit competition with, a revived, Chinese-backed rival: in November 2025 China, Zambia and Tanzania signed a $1.4 billion, 30-year concession to rehabilitate the TAZARA railway. On debt, Angola paid down $1.3 billion of Chinese oil-backed debt in H1 2025 alone, reducing the stock from $10.2 billion to $8.9 billion, about 9% of GDP, continuing a deliberate policy in place since 2017 to diversify away from the roughly $42 billion in cumulative Chinese lending received over two decades, the largest such exposure of any African country.

Angola’s 2024 Population and Housing Census, the country’s second since independence, recorded a resident population of 36,604,681, with a national literacy rate of 72.6%. The labor market shows a large recent methodological shift: the national statistics office adopted new ILO-aligned unemployment statistics in 2025, producing significantly lower headline unemployment than prior methodology. Under the new system, overall unemployment stood at 20.1% at the end of 2025, with youth unemployment at 43.6% and a persistent gender gap (22% for women vs. 18.3% for men). Informality remains pervasive: 78.6% of total employment was informal in Q4 2025, rising to 88.7% among women versus 69.5% among men. On the civil service side, the number of Angolan civil servants stood at 426,632 in 2024, up 4.5% year-on-year, with a further roughly 500,000 people employed in defense and security bodies outside that count. Politically, the most significant recent development was the deadliest civil unrest in Angola since the end of its civil war: in late July 2025, President João Lourenço’s government cut fuel subsidies, raising diesel prices by 33%, triggering nationwide strikes, marches and riots. Death tolls reported at the time ranged from 22 to 30 killed with 277 injured and over 1,500 arrests, reflecting broader frustration over unemployment, inequality and the distribution of oil wealth. For 2026, the National Assembly approved a state budget of 33.2 trillion kwanzas, roughly €31 billion, a 4.1% reduction versus the prior year’s budget, based on an assumed oil price of $61/barrel, with more than 25% of expenditure allocated to social sectors; the IMF concluded a Post-Financing Assessment in September 2025 and an Article IV Consultation in May 2026, and the World Bank approved a $1.1 billion package in March 2026 to support structural reforms and economic diversification.