Angola Hit Hard By Fall In Oil Price As IMF Moves To Help.

"The sharp decline in oil prices since mid-2014 represents a major challenge for oil exporters, especially for those economies that have yet to become more diversified ". "The IMF stands ready to help Angola address the economic challenges
it is currently facing by supporting a comprehensive policy package to accelerate the diversification of the economy, while safeguarding macroeconomic and financial stability", was the statement from the IMF on plans with Angola this week.

The problem with such statement is why it took Angola so long to realise it had to diversify it's economy after enjoying goodies of oil sales since the end of it's civil war in 2002 after warring for more than two decades since it's independence in 1975 from Portugal.

Angola has an abundance of gold, copper and a rich wildlife with oil accounting for more than 95 percent of the country's revenue . While the economy of the Southern African country is known as one of the fastest growing economies at the rate of 20 percent between 2005 and 2007,  much of it's  40 million population still live in abject poverty and it has one of the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) 0.532 placing it in the 149 position. The country is twice the size of France or Texas and is the world's twenty-third largest country. Also the country's oil production exceeds more than 2 million barrels per day.

It is difficult to decipher why the government did not all these years that oil sold for a high price strengthen the dying industrial sector which was left to ruin after the departure of Portuguese Middle class citizens during the civil war. Also questions abound on what the government did with the $2 billion line of credit provided by China's Eximbank to rebuild the country's economy . Even with the purported  growth by Angola , there is a high poverty rate as 58 percent of the population are classified as poor and live below the UN's $2 a day,  With more than 90 percent of farming done at family and subsistence level, hence the country depending heavily on food importers from South Africa and Portugal.

With high levels of corruption trailing the country since the end of the civil war it  obviously answers the question why the country has recently realised it needs to diversify it's economy after the fall in oil prices after pocketing more than $100 a barrel for it's more than 2 million barrels oil production a day.

What this clearly shows is how oil has turned a curse for the once thriving economy