Mozambique praised by World Bank for poverty reduction

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Mozambique praised by World Bank for poverty reduction

The World Bank has released a report revealing that the success of Mozambique’s pro-poor growth policies is due to small scale farmers and other businesses.

The policies have acted to keep inflation pegged down whilst at the same time decreasing the real terms cost of conducting business.

In addition, competition restrictions including price fixing have been lifted.

Family-owned enterprises such as small farms and shops employ nine-tenths of Mozambique’s labour force, according to the report.

The country’s major industries suffered collapse during and after the civil war, and the economy was helped to expand due to the smaller businesses.

The report states that a typical growth episode for a country such as Mozambique is about seven years.

However, Mozambique has seen poverty fall and the economy expand for 14 years.