Editing Economy of Angola (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of Angola}}
The Angolan economy has been dominated by the production of raw materials and the use of cheap labor since [[Colonial history of Angola|European rule began in the sixteenth century]].<ref name=":0">{{citation-attribution|1={{cite encyclopedia|title=Angola: a country study|publisher=[[Federal Research Division]], [[Library of Congress]]|location=Washington, D.C.|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/90003244/|last=Clark|first=Nancy|date=1989|editor-last=Collelo|editor-first=Thomas|pages=113–116|language=English|isbn=|oclc=44357178|entry=Background to economic development}}}}</ref> The Portuguese used Angola principally as a source for the thriving [[Slavery in Angola|slave trade]] across the Atlantic; [[Luanda]] became the greatest slaving port in Africa.<ref name=":0" /> After the Portuguese Empire abolished the slave trade in Angola in 1858, it began using [[Concession (contract)|concessional]] agreements, granting exclusive rights to a private company to exploit land, people, and all other resources within a given territory.<ref name=":0" /> In [[Mozambique]], this policy spawned a number of companies notorious for their exploitation of local labor.<ref name=":0" /> But in Angola, only [[Diamang]] showed even moderate success.<ref name=":0" /> At the same time, Portuguese began emigrating to Angola to establish farms and plantations (''[[fazendas]]'') to grow [[cash crop]]s for export.<ref name=":0" /> Although these farms were only partially successful before [[World War II]], they formed the basis for the later economic growth.<ref name=":0" />

The principal exports of the post-slave economy in the 19th century were rubber, beeswax, and ivory.<ref>{{cite EB9 |wstitle=Angola |volume=2 |page=45}}</ref> Prior to the [[First World War]], exportation of coffee, [[palm tree|palm]] kernels and [[palm oil|oil]], cattle, leather and [[Hide (skin)|hides]], and [[salt fish]] joined the principal exports, with small quantities of gold and cotton also being produced.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Angola |volume=2 |page=39}}</ref> Grains, sugar, and rum were also produced for local consumption.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=39}} The principal imports were foodstuffs, cotton goods, hardware, and British coal.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=39}} Legislation against foreign traders was implemented in the 1890s. The territory's prosperity, however, continued to depend on plantations worked by labor "indentured" from the interior.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=40}}

Before World War II, the Portuguese government was concerned primarily with keeping its colonies self-sufficient and therefore invested little capital in Angola's local economy.<ref name=":0" /> It built no roads until the mid-1920s, and the first railroad, the [[Benguela railway]], was not completed until 1929.<ref name=":0" /> Between 1900 and 1940, only 35,000 Portuguese emigrants settled in Angola, and most worked in commerce in the cities, facilitating trade with Portugal.<ref name=":0" /> In the rural areas, Portuguese settlers often found it difficult to make a living because of fluctuating world prices for [[sugarcane]] and [[sisal]] and the difficulties in obtaining cheap labor to farm their crops.<ref name=":0" /> As a result, they often suspended their operations until the market prices rose and instead marketed the produce of Angolan farmers.<ref name=":0" />

But in the wake of World War II, the rapid growth of industrialization worldwide and the parallel requirements for raw materials led Portugal to develop closer ties with its colonies and to begin actively developing the Angolan economy.<ref name=":0" /> In the 1930s, Portugal started to develop closer trade ties with its colonies, and by 1940 it absorbed 63 percent of Angolan exports and accounted for 47 percent of Angolan imports, up from 39 percent and 37 percent, respectively, a decade earlier.<ref name=":0" /> When the price of Angola's principal crops—coffee and sisal—jumped after the war, the Portuguese government began to reinvest some profits inside the country, initiating a series of projects to develop infrastructure.<ref name=":0" /> During the 1950s, Portugal built dams, [[Hydroelectricity|hydroelectric power stations]], and transportation systems.<ref name=":0" /> In addition, Portuguese citizens were encouraged to emigrate to Angola, where planned settlements (''colonatos'') were established for them in the rural areas.<ref name=":0" /> Finally, the Portuguese initiated [[Mining industry of Angola|mining operations]] for iron ore, [[manganese]], and copper to complement industrial activities at home, and in 1955 the first successful [[oil well]]s were drilled in Angola.<ref name=":0" /> By 1960 the Angolan economy had been completely transformed, boasting a successful commercial agricultural sector, a promising mineral and petroleum production enterprise, and an incipient manufacturing industry.<ref name=":0" />

Yet by 1976, these encouraging developments had been reversed.<ref name=":0" /> The economy was in complete disarray in the aftermath of the [[Angolan War of Independence|war of independence]] and the subsequent internal fighting of the liberation movements.<ref name=":0" /> According to the ruling [[MPLA-PT]], in August 1976 more than 80 percent of the agricultural plantations had been abandoned by their Portuguese owners; only 284 out of 692 factories continued to operate; more than 30,000 medium-level and high-level managers, technicians, and skilled workers had left the country; and 2,500 enterprises had been closed (75 percent of which had been abandoned by their owners).<ref name=":0" /> Furthermore, only 8,000 vehicles remained out of 153,000 registered, dozens of bridges had been destroyed, the trading network was disrupted, administrative services did not exist, and files and studies were missing.<ref name=":0" />

Angola's economic ills can also be traced to the legacy of Portuguese colonial development.<ref name=":0" /> Many of the white settlers had come to Angola after 1950 and were understandably quick to repatriate during the war of independence.<ref name=":0" /> During their stay, however, these settlers had appropriated Angolan lands, disrupting local peasant production of cash and subsistence crops.<ref name=":0" /> Moreover, Angola's industries depended on trade with Portugal—the colony's overwhelmingly dominant trade partner—for both markets and machinery.<ref name=":0" /> Only the petroleum and diamond industries boasted a wider clientele for investment and markets.<ref name=":0" /> Most important, the Portuguese had not trained Angolans to operate the larger industrial or agricultural enterprises, nor had they actively educated the population.<ref name=":0" /> Upon independence Angola thus found itself without markets or expertise to maintain even minimal economic growth.<ref name=":0" />

As a result, the government intervened, nationalizing most businesses and farms abandoned by the Portuguese.<ref name=":0" /> It established state farms to continue producing coffee, sugar, and sisal, and it took over the operations of all factories to maintain production.<ref name=":0" /> These attempts usually failed, primarily because of the lack of experienced managers and the continuing disruptions in rural areas caused by the [[UNITA]] insurgency.<ref name=":0" /> Only the petroleum sector continued to operate successfully, and by 1980 this sector had helped the gross domestic product reach US$3.6&nbsp;billion, its highest level up to 1988.<ref name=":0" /> In the face of serious economic problems and the continuing war throughout the countryside, in 1987 the government announced plans to liberalize economic policies and promote private investment and involvement in the economy.<ref name=":0" />

===1990s===
[[United Nations Angola Verification Mission III]] and [[MONUA]] spent US$1.5&nbsp;billion overseeing implementation of the [[Lusaka Protocol]], a 1994 peace accord that ultimately failed to end the civil war. The protocol prohibited [[UNITA]] from buying foreign arms, a provision the United Nations largely did not enforce, so both sides continued to build up their stockpile. UNITA purchased weapons in 1996 and 1997 from private sources in Albania and Bulgaria, and from Zaire, South Africa, Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Togo, and Burkina Faso. In October 1997 the UN imposed travel sanctions on UNITA leaders, but the UN waited until July 1998 to limit UNITA's exportation of diamonds and freeze UNITA bank accounts. While the U.S. government gave US$250&nbsp;million to UNITA between 1986 and 1991, UNITA made US$1.72&nbsp;billion between 1994 and 1999 exporting diamonds, primarily through Zaire to Europe. At the same time the Angolan government received large amounts of weapons from the governments of Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, and South Africa. While no arms shipment to the government violated the protocol, no country informed the U.N. Register on Conventional Weapons as required.<ref name="lusaka">Vines, Alex. ''Angola Unravels: The Rise and Fall of the Lusaka Peace Process'', 1999. Human Rights Watch.</ref>

Despite the increase in civil warfare in late 1998, the economy grew by an estimated 4% in 1999. The government introduced new currency denominations in 1999, including a 1 and 5 kwanza note.{{cite web
|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/12E64CD19E1EC120?p=WORLDNEWS
|title= Central Bank governor explains arrangements for new currency
|publisher=BBC Selected Transcripts: Africa
|date=November 1, 1999|access-date=October 10, 2017}}

===21st century===

[[File:Isabel dos Santos (cropped).jpg|thumb|250px|The Angolan government has been trying to prosecute [[Isabel dos Santos]], a daughter of a former Angolan president, for corruption which may have led to Angola's recession]]

An economic reform effort was launched in 1998.{{CN|date=February 2023}} Angola ranked 160 of 174 nations in the [[United Nations Human Development Index]] in 2000.<ref name="fastest"/> In April 2000 Angola started an [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) Staff-Monitored Program (SMP). The program formally lapsed in June 2001, but the IMF remains engaged. In this context the Government of Angola has succeeded in unifying exchange rates and has raised fuel, electricity, and water rates. The Commercial Code, telecommunications law, and Foreign Investment Code are being modernized. A privatization effort, prepared with [[World Bank]] assistance, has begun with the [[Banco de Comércio e Indústria|BCI]] bank. Nevertheless, a legacy of fiscal mismanagement and corruption persists.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} The civil war [[Internally displaced person|internally displaced]] 3.8&nbsp;million people, 32% of the population, by 2001.<ref name="fastest"/> The security brought about by the 2002 peace settlement has led to the resettlement of 4 million displaced persons, thus resulting in large-scale increases in agriculture production.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}

Angola produced over {{convert|3|e6carat|kg|abbr=off}} of diamonds in 2003,<ref name="threemct">{{cite web |url=http://www.mbendi.co.za/indy/ming/dmnd/af/p0005.htm |title=Diamond Mining in Africa – Overview |publisher=Mbendi.co.za |date=March 3, 2014|access-date=July 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070707125413/http://www.mbendi.co.za/indy/ming/dmnd/af/p0005.htm |archive-date=July 7, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and production was expected to grow to {{convert|10|e6carat|kg|abbr=off}} per year by 2007. In 2004, China's Eximbank approved a $2&nbsp;billion line of credit to Angola to rebuild infrastructure. The economy grew 18% in 2005 and growth was expected to reach 26% in 2006 and stay above 10% for the rest of the decade.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-chiefexecutive.com/projects/angola-revival/index.html |title=Banco Africano de Investimentos: Increasing the Pace – Angola's Revival – Chief Executive Officer|website=www.the-chiefexecutive.com|access-date=February 14, 2020}}</ref> By 2020, Angola had a national debt of $76&nbsp;billion, of which $20&nbsp;billion is to China.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fitchratings.com/research/sovereigns/fitch-downgrades-angola-to-ccc-04-09-2020 |title=Fitch downgrades Angola to CCC |date=4 September 2020 |website=www.fitchratings.com |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210210222214/https://www.fitchratings.com/research/sovereigns/fitch-downgrades-angola-to-ccc-04-09-2020 |archive-date=10 February 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The construction industry is taking advantage of the growing economy, with various housing projects stimulated by the government such as the ''Angola Investe'' program and the ''[[Grupo Opaia SA#Casa Feliz|Casa Feliz]]'' or ''[[Grupo Opaia SA#Opaia Águas (Water)|Meña]]'' projects. Not all public construction projects are functional. For example, [[Kilamba Kiaxi]], where a whole new satellite town of Luanda, consisting of housing facilities for several hundreds of thousands of people, was completely uninhabited for over four years because of skyrocketing prices, but completely sold out after the government decreased the original price and created mortgage plans at around the election time and thus made it affordable for middle-class people. ChevronTexaco started pumping {{convert|50|koilbbl/d|abbr=on}} from Block 14 in January 2000, but production decreased to {{convert|57|koilbbl/d|abbr=on}} in 2007 due to poor-quality oil.<ref name="opec">{{cite web|title=Angola|url=http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Angola/pdf.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926035705/http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Angola/pdf.pdf|archive-date=September 26, 2007|work=Energy Information Administration|publisher=Eia.doe.gov}}</ref> Angola joined the [[Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries]] on January 1, 2007.<ref name="opec"/> Cabinda Gulf Oil Company found Malange-1, an oil reservoir in Block 14, on August 9, 2007.<ref name="malfound">{{cite web
|url=http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=48798 
|title=Chevron Finds Success on Angolan Block 14, Again 
|publisher=Rigzone 
|date=August 9, 2007 |access-date=July 13, 2014
}}
</ref>