afrol News, 6 July - The central bank of Mozambique has reported a rise in the level of debt owed by county’s private sector.

A reported by the Bank of Mozambique said the financial sector was owned US$168 million in the first quarter of this year by the private sector.

However, the Bank of Mozambique said in its analysis that most of the debt register was as a result of requests for credit by the retail sector in foreign currency. The Bank, according to local reports, also listed the sector to have taken at least 25.2 percent of total credit, while industry recorded 17.9 percent and private activities took 17.4 percent.

The bank of Mozambique said that the expansion of private sector debt in the period had been due to both requests for loans in foreign currency - around US$52 million - and a rise in loans in local currency, reports said.

“The agricultural and tourism industry sectors in the first quarter posted a drop in loans of around 3.6 and 6 percentage points, respectively, against the same period of 2008,” local reports quoted the central bank document.

Reports further said the central bank’s document puts the private sector’s debts to banks operating in Mozambique, at an estimated figure of around US$1.852 billion.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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