Lagos — Angola closed 2025 with a nominal gross domestic product of approximately $140bn, up 23.35 per cent year-on-year in local currency terms, reinforcing one of Africa’s fastest ongoing structural economic transitions outside the oil sector.
AfricaHeadline Reports Team
editorial@africaheadline.com
Preliminary national accounts data released by Angola’s National Statistics Institute (INE) show an economy slowing in real terms but becoming increasingly diversified, domestically driven and less dependent on crude exports. Real GDP growth stood at 3.13 per cent in 2025, below the 4.95 per cent recorded in 2024.
The slowdown was largely caused by the oil industry, where activity contracted by 5.23 per cent during the year. Yet the non-oil economy expanded by 5.11 per cent, extending a structural trend that has accelerated since the post-pandemic oil shock of 2020.
The most consequential shift in Angola’s 2025 national accounts lies in the composition of GDP itself.
Oil, which for decades dominated Angola’s economic structure, now represents only 13.95 per cent of national output, down sharply from 23.83 per cent in 2021. In parallel, the non-oil sector expanded its share to 86.05 per cent of GDP, the highest level in the country’s recent statistical history.
Agriculture emerged as the largest sector of the Angolan economy, accounting for 23.06 per cent of GDP. Trade followed with 19.27 per cent, while oil accounted for 13.95 per cent and public administration represented 11.54 per cent.
The figures point to a substantial reconfiguration of Angola’s productive base.
The fastest-growing segment of the economy in 2025 was information and communications, which expanded by 50.52 per cent in real terms. The performance reflects rising digitalisation, stronger mobile penetration, increased data consumption and growing investment in telecommunications infrastructure.
Manufacturing expanded by 10.50 per cent, more than double the 4.23 per cent recorded in 2024. The sector became the second-largest contributor to overall GDP growth, adding 0.69 percentage points to national expansion.
Agriculture contributed 0.71 percentage points to total GDP growth, making it the country’s single largest growth driver in 2025.
Diamond and non-metallic mineral extraction expanded by 8.38 per cent, while transport and storage rose 6.35 per cent. Financial services grew by 7.56 per cent after several years of subdued performance.
Nominal and monetary indicators also reveal a sharp expansion in the scale of the economy.
GDP per capita increased to approximately $3,700 in 2025, up from around $3,100 in 2024. Angola’s resident population was estimated at 37.5mn people.
On the expenditure side, final consumption surged to the equivalent of roughly $120bn, up sharply from the previous year. Household consumption alone represented nearly 70 per cent of GDP, highlighting the increasing weight of domestic demand in Angola’s economic structure.
Yet the figures also expose structural imbalances.
The investment rate fell to 9.65 per cent of GDP, among the lowest levels of the past decade. Gross savings declined to 10.02 per cent of GDP, pressured by the rapid expansion of private consumption.
Gross operating surplus remained exceptionally high at 79.98 per cent of GDP, reflecting the concentration of corporate income and the relatively low share of labour compensation in the economy.
Employee compensation represented only 19.38 per cent of GDP in 2025.
External sector flows continue to show an economy still dependent on primary exports, although less exposed than in previous years. Exports of goods and services declined to approximately $30bn in 2025, down from nearly $35bn in 2024. Imports meanwhile rose to around $24bn.
The economy’s net lending capacity collapsed to approximately $500m, compared with more than $5bn a year earlier.
For international investors, the numbers reveal two Angolas emerging simultaneously.
One remains constrained by oil dependence, weak investment formation and external vulnerability.
The other is increasingly shaped by agriculture, manufacturing, digital infrastructure, logistics, domestic trade and financial services.
The central question over the next five years will be whether Angola can convert sectoral growth into systemic productivity gains, competitive industrialisation and sustainable increases in household purchasing power.
The 2025 figures suggest that Angola’s economic transition is no longer merely a political narrative. It is becoming a measurable economic reality.
__
By AfricaHeadline Editorial Desk
Strategic Insight. African Perspective.
© 2026 AfricaHeadline Media Network. All Rights Reserved.
**This material is protected under international copyright and intellectual property laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted or republished in any form or by any means without prior written authorization from AfricaHeadline Media Network.**
