Antonio Gumende, editor in chief at the Maputo office of the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), said he viewed the World Bank optimism as a long-term perspective rather than a short-term one.

'The World Bank talks about the country's development potential making reference to farming, which is key to growth and poverty reduction, and calling for improvements in access to land,' Gumende told AFP.

But he said current economic growth rates were not translating into an improvement in living standards for the majority of the Mozambican citizens.

Mozambique, a formerly Marxist state, embarked in 1988 on a structural adjustment programme sponsored by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.