The Government of Mozambique intends to abandon economic policies that concentrate growth in the extractive industry and to steer national strategy towards strengthening production chains. The position comes against a background of persistent structural weaknesses in the economy, which is still trying to recover after a year marked by contraction.

In a Ministry of Finance report on the 2025 budget execution, the Executive acknowledges a “relatively lower current growth trend”, stressing the need to adopt “robust and consistent economic measures that galvanise the main productive sectors”.

According to the document, this reading “reinforces the need for a more prudent and selective orientation of economic policy”, capable of tackling the economy's structural weaknesses and avoiding a repeat of the constraints seen in recent years.

In this sense, the report argues that policies that deepen the concentration of growth in primary sectors, above all the extractive industry, without the parallel development of production chains, should be discouraged. The same document also warns of the limits of expanding current public spending with no direct impact on productive capacity, as well as of the dispersal of public investment across projects with little economic effect.

“Likewise, the expansion of public spending of a current nature, without direct impact on productive capacity, as well as the dispersal of public investment in projects with little economic effect, proved insufficient to halt the contraction of GDP [Gross Domestic Product]”, the report states.

The latest data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) show that the Mozambican economy recovered in the last quarter of 2025, growing by 4.67% after four consecutive quarters of decline. Even so, the country ended the year with a year-on-year contraction of 0.52%.

This economic performance occurred in a particularly turbulent period, marked by the violent protests that followed the general elections of 9 October 2024. Over more than five months, the clashes caused about 400 deaths and left a trail of destruction among businesses and public infrastructure.

The INE figures also indicate that, in the third quarter of 2025, GDP at market prices fell by 0.85% compared with the same period of 2024. The year also saw declines in the first and second quarters of 2025, of 3.92% and 0.94% respectively, in addition to the 5.68% contraction recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The Mozambican economy remains deeply dependent on the exploitation of coal and natural gas, sectors that dominate national exports, according to earlier central bank data.

The Ministry of Finance report also warns of the risks associated with policies that compromise macroeconomic stability, namely through fiscal imbalances, inflationary pressures or exchange-rate instability. Such factors, the document states, tend to worsen the weakening of domestic demand and the contraction of private investment, as was evident in the unfavourable performance of several branches of the tertiary sector in 2025.

Conversely, the economic assessment points to the need to adjust strategies and public policies to accelerate the recovery of the country's productive base. The priority sectors identified include manufacturing, energy, construction, agriculture and logistics services, areas with a strong knock-on effect on the economy and whose performance significantly conditions the overall level of economic activity.

As regards public investment, the document advocates a more selective and productive approach, focused on critical economic infrastructure and on interventions with a high multiplier effect, capable of boosting youth employment and self-employment while stimulating domestic production.

At the same time, the Government considers it essential to strengthen the instruments of support for the private sector, especially for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, identified as fundamental to revitalising the domestic market and boosting trade, including informal trade.