In the triumvirate that has been steering Mozambique's impressive post-war economic recovery, finance minister Tomas Salamao is clearly established as the technician, complementing the political and administrative skills of president Joaquim Chissano and prime minister Pascoal Mocumbi.
Mozambique's economic turnround has looked increasingly credible since the end of the war in 1993 and the country's first multi-party elections in 1994. Inflation has come down from 54% a year in 1993 to 4.3% in 1997. The economy grew by 6.4% in 1996, 6.6% in 1997 and is projected to grow at 9.5% this year, making it one of the world's fastest-growing economies. But it is from a base of being the world's poorest country. After 30 years of intermittent conflict, the economy had been devastated.
Salamao's role has been to develop an economic strategy that met the policy demands of the World Bank and IMF, but that also enabled Chissano and Mocumbi to consolidate the post-war reconciliation and, most important of all, to generate jobs for the ex-combatants. Achieving that balance has not been easy.
First, there was the IMF's insistence that the Mozambique government must sharply increase its tax revenues to more than 20% of GDP to assist its attack on the fiscal deficit.