(Ecofin Agency) - The Mozambican economy registered a growth of 6.1% during the first half of 2016, according to data published on 12 May by the government following a cabinet meeting. Inflation, for its part, was pinned at 2.35% for the first six months of the current year against a forecast of 5.1% for the whole year.

In 2014, the real GDP of Mozambique increased by 7.6% thanks in part to the public expenditure and direct foreign investments in the construction, business services, transportation and communications, finance sectors and mining industries.

In May, the International Monetary Fund estimated that Mozambique should register an economic growth of 7% in 2015 then on average 8% per annum until 2020, thanks to the huge investments scheduled in the gas basin of Rovuma (North-East).

Big international oil and gas companies, including Italian ENI and American Anadarko, are expected to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the Rovuma basin where huge offshore gas reserves have been discovered.

These reserves could catapult Mozambique to the third place of world exporters of natural liquid gas, while operations have started in gigantic coal reserves on the North-East of the country.