Angola’s 2027 Budget and the Comforting Illusion of Numbers

Angola’s proposed 2027 budget deserves one compliment before the questions begin. The Finance Ministry has made its documentation available online with commendable transparency and technical clarity. Readers can examine the government’s assumptions. Whether those assumptions describe the country they live in is another matter.

The first difficulty concerns political power. Parliamentary approval will leave the president with considerable discretion to reshape the budget throughout the year. Under…