Mozambique MPs Back State Guarantees for Previously Hidden Debt
- Mozambique court previously ruled the loans violated law
- Opposition lawmakers protested the vote and walked out
This article is for subscribers only.
Mozambique’s parliament ratified a law that provides state guarantees for previously hidden loans of two state-owned companies that sparked a debt crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Lawmakers from the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique approved the state accounts for 2015, which included guarantees for loans worth $1.12 billion that ProIndicus and Mozambique Asset Management took out in the prior two years. Opposition members left the legislature in protest when the vote was taken late Wednesday. The approval means the loans are now legal, in spite of a previous ruling by the country’s administrative court that they violated Mozambican budget law.