The decline in the price of crude oil badly hit Angola. The national currency kwanza nearly crashed and imports have drastically reduced, DW reported. Food is scarce and more expensive such that supermarkets ration sales. Long queues bring back bad memories to many Angolans about the time of the civil war, one of the bloodiest in Africa. Since its end in 2002, the economy has been growing at a high rate of 13, 18 and in some years even 23% per year. Since then queues were no longer an issue, Angola was instead a popular destination for international companies to build supermarkets and shopping malls. According to statistics from the United Nations, Angola exported oil worth about $68 billion in 2013. But as the Angolan elite lived in the lap of luxury and bought billions of corporate investments in Europe, they forgot to diversify the economy at home. In 2013 more than 98% of Angolan exports were oil and oil derivatives. Today, apart from oil and diamonds Angola does not produce anything that is competitive on the world market.
