Benefitting from a strategic location, Mozambique is seen as a gateway to the markets of the SADC (Southern African Development Community), which brings together around 280 million consumers.
The Mozambican economy's distribution by sectors is relatively diverse. The secondary sector, which represents about 15% of GDP, was the one that grew the most in the third quarter of 2015: by 8.4% over the previous year. This was due, essentially, to strong growth of 19% in the electricity, water and gas sector. The primary sector, which represents close to 26% of GDP, grew by 6.3% as a result of an expansion of 8.7% in mining activity, 5.6% in agriculture and 8.4% in fisheries. The services sector, which represents more than 50% of GDP, witnessed the smallest growth of only 4.8%. This was due to the weak performance of commerce and services.
For 2016, the government forecasts economic growth of around 7.0%, which is higher than the IMF forecast of 6.0% and, taking into account the worldwide crisis in general and the fall in the price of raw materials in particular, which would be difficult to achieve. This growth will be influenced by the positive performance expected in agriculture (6.5%), electricity and gas (7.7%), construction (7.9%), commerce (8.0%), extractive industries (10.0%), transport (5.8%), education (8.0%), health (7.5%), fisheries (4.8%) and the financial sector (8.2%) (forecast for gross domestic product for 2016).
