Angola’s economy under sanctions: problems and solutions

Abstract

Relevance. Africa is the continent most targeted by sanctions. African states were made subject to sanctions by the United Nations and various regional organizations such as the African Union, Economic Community of West African States, and the European Union. There is, however, still a lack of understanding of these sanctions’ intended and unintended effects in the African context, which is the research gap this study seeks to address.

Research objective. This paper analyzes the role and mechanisms of the sanctions imposed by Western countries (especially the USA) against Angola and other African states to achieve certain geopolitical goals.

Data and methods. This study relies on the comprehensive and recently updated dataset of the Global Sanctions Data Base (GSDB). The GSDB lists over 1,101 sanction cases by country and international organization. Sanctions are classified according to the three parameters: their type, objective and degree of success. The methodological framework of this study comprises the historical-logical, statistical, comparative, and analytical methods.

Results. We analyzed the dynamic of the macro-economic indicators targeted by the sanctions against Angola and its political elite in 1995-2021 and found that the effects of these sanctions were not very profound. The UN sanctions, however, had a statistically and economically significant effect on the country's economic growth as they led to a considerable exports shrinkage and decline in GDP. The latter effect was possible because Angola's economy is heavily reliant on oil exports. As the imports curbed, since 1995 Angola’s trade structure has undergone some significant changes: the share of the imports from China grew by 12% between 1995 and 2019 while the share of France decreased by 8.2%, Portugal, by 9.6%, and the USA, by 10.8%

Conclusions. Analysis of the GSDB data has led us to the following conclusions: first, sanctions are becoming an increasingly popular tool of international relations; second, European countries are the most frequent users of sanctions and African countries are their most frequent targets; third, sanctions are becoming increasingly diverse; and, finally, the share of trade sanctions is decreasing while the share of financial and travel sanctions is growing. At the current stage, the effect of the sanctions is weak in comparison with the declared goals although they have a negative impact on the living standards in the target countries.