Banking was a monopoly of the state-run BNA, which controlled currency, loans, and foreign debts for the private and state sectors. Reflecting the general liberalization of state economic policies adopted in 1986, the BNA has provided credit for foreign investors and has tried to encourage foreign banks to establish operations inside Angola. The BNA handled all government financial transactions and played an important role in setting fiscal policy, especially regarding permissible foreign loans and the establishment of annual ceilings on imports. The bank has been notably unsuccessful, however, in halting the decline of the kwanza, which in late 1988 traded on the parallel market for up to about 2,100 per United States dollar--barely one-seventieth of its theoretical value. In fact, because the local economy was based more on barter than on monetary exchange, the BNA's primary impact has been in the area of foreign loans, which have become increasingly important to the economy.
Data as of February 1989