Low performance, high hopes

The country, located between Tanzania and South Africa, scores highly for its potential for renewable energies and its significant raw material deposits: coal and aluminium are the most important export products. For some time now, enormous gas deposits have also been attracting attention.

In addition to the raw materials sector, agriculture offers opportunities in the former Portuguese colony. This is because productivity in this sector is often still very low, which opens up opportunities for improvement and investment.

One of the risk factors in one of Africa’s poorest countries is the security situation in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. Added to this are setbacks in the fight against corruption and an economy that is recovering only slowly from the recession of 2025.

In the coming years, it will be particularly important for raw material extraction to be accompanied by greater local value creation. To this end, the Mozambican Parliament passed an amendment to the mining and petroleum laws in May that establishes a minimum 15 percent state stake inprojects and prohibits the export of unprocessed mineral raw materials.

In addition, infrastructure development is a key lever for exploiting the country’s potential as a trade and logistics hub in south-east Africa.

Economy. According to Germany Trade & Invest, Mozambique’s economy is expected to grow by only 0.5 per cent this year. For 2027, economists predict a growth rate of 2.7 per cent. The gross domestic product per capita rose in the last 20 years from the equivalent of 400 to 657 US-Dollars – a very weak performance compared to other African countries. Inflation recently stood at 4.4 per cent; national debt has reached the high level of 116,8 per cent of GDP.

Population. Mozambique has around 36 million inhabitants; the population recently grew at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent. In the last 20 years, the fertilty rate has fallen from 5.6 to 4.7 children per woman. Life expectancy was at 64 years recently (twenty years ago: 52). Only 36 per cent of the population has access to electricity (twenty years ago: 11 per cent).

Governance. On Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, Mozambique ranks only 161th out of 180 countries. The score dropped by a full 4 points last year to 21, putting the country behind nations such as Russia and Zimbabwe.

Sources and further information:

World Bank: https://data.worldbank.org/country/mozambique

Germany Trade & Invest: https://www.gtai.de/de/trade/mosambik-wirtschaft/wirtschaftsdaten-kompakt#/MOZ/wirtschaftslage

Transparency International: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025/