Photo: Lusa<\/p>\n
Mozambican business confidence recovered for the first time in nearly two years in the third quarter, halting a sequence of seven consecutive quarters of decline, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The Economic Climate Indicator (ICE) for the third quarter, which measures business confidence, rose from 87.4 points in the second quarter to 87.8 points between July and September of this year, according to the INE report.<\/p>\n
The result interrupts a downward trajectory initiated after the second quarter of 2024 and marks the first improvement in the indicator since then.<\/p>\n
According to the report, the recovery was \u201cinfluenced by the improvement in employment and demand prospects,\u201d two of the indicator\u2019s primary components.<\/p>\n
Despite the rise, the ICE remains below the historical series average, set at 98.8 points. The indicator had registered 89.8 points in the third quarter of 2025, falling to 88.7 points in the fourth quarter of that year, 87.8 points in the first quarter of 2026, and 87.4 points in the second quarter, prior to the modest recovery now observed.<\/p>\n
The document notes that the behavior of the economic climate reflected divergent developments across key activity sectors.<\/p>\n
In services, the confidence indicator increased from 100.6 to 101.7 points, consolidating the recovery initiated in the previous quarter and remaining above the historical sectoral average.<\/p>\n
In industry, business confidence recovered slightly, moving from 89.8 to 90.0 points following two consecutive quarters of decline.<\/p>\n
In commerce, despite an improvement from 71.0 to 72.3 points, the sector continues to exhibit the lowest confidence level in the economy and remains significantly below its historical average. According to the INE, the economic climate recovery was accompanied by a renewed increase in demand expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe demand expectation indicator recorded progressive improvements for the fourth consecutive quarter,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n
The corresponding balance moved from 91.6 to 92.4 points, driven by positive assessments from service sector companies and the recovery observed in industry and commerce.<\/p>\n
Employment prospects also improved in the third quarter, with the corresponding indicator rising from 81.1 to 82.9 points, extending the recovery trend observed since the beginning of the year, although it remains below the historical average of 98.6 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis favorable outlook for future employment was influenced by positive assessments of the indicator in the commerce and services sectors,\u201d the document likewise notes. Goods and services price outlooks also recorded improvements, with the indicator moving from 102.6 to 104.7 points, signaling a third consecutive quarter of recovery and remaining above the historical series average.<\/p>\n
Concurrently, obstacles to business activity decreased, with the percentage of companies reporting facing some constraint dropping from 49.8% in the second quarter to 44.7% between July and September\u2014a reduction of 5.1 percentage points.<\/p>\n
Even so, nearly half of all companies continue to face operational difficulties, with industry being the most affected sector, where roughly 55% of companies report constraints.<\/p>\n
Among the primary obstacles cited by businesses, market difficulties, demand insufficiency, financing access issues, operational costs, and business environment limitations stand out.<\/p>\n
The data emerges at a moment when the Mozambican economy seeks to recover from the effects of social instability recorded at the end of 2024, recurrent climate impacts, and constraints faced across several productive sectors.<\/p>\n
Source: Lusa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Lusa Mozambican business confidence recovered for the first time in nearly two years in the third quarter,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-619324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}