WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - Angola hopes to return

to international bond markets this year with a $1 billion bond,

Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa told Reuters, predicting

the government could bring its debt-to-GDP ratio down to 60% or

below by 2027.

Daves de Sousa, speaking on the sidelines of the

International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings in

Washington said a rise in oil prices could help bring down

borrowing costs for Africa's second-largest crude oil exporter.

"We hope that will help us get access to the market at a

better cost," Daves de Sousa said, adding the government was

also looking into issuing an ESG bond.

Rising tensions in the Middle East have lifted oil prices

above $90 per barrel in early April.

Sub-Saharan African issuers have returned to markets this

year after a near-two year hiatus when the fallout from

COVID-19, Russia's war in Ukraine and rising global interest

rates made foreign currency debt prohibitively expensive for

most countries in the region from early 2022 onwards.

Daves de Sousa said she expected Angola's debt-to-GDP ratio,

currently at 74-75%, to come down to 60% or below as the

government is pushing ahead with its ambitious reforms.

"Our national development plan, is to find a way to

diversify until 2027 - so hopefully near to 2027 or even before

that we will reach that point and we will defend it," she said.

A raft of privatisations are part of the plan. The

government is expecting to move ahead with a public listing of

the Angolan Debt and Securities Exchange (BODIVA) and a stake in

insurer ENSA this year, while Unitel, the country's biggest

telecommunications company, should debut in late 2024 or early

2025. State-oil producer Sonangol was on track for a

dual-listing next year or in 2027, she added.

Daves de Sousa said the economy should grow by 2.8% this

year, and around the same rate again next year.

Inflation pressures meanwhile remained an issue, and the

government might chose to extend the current deadline to phase

out final fuel subsidies by end-2025.

"Depending on the social and economic conditions, we will

take more time to finalise (the removal), but we still want to

do it gradually," she said.

The IMF had told Angola in March to continue removing fuel

subsidies. Angola's Central Bank Governor Manuel Tiago Dias told

Reuters on Saturday that inflation, which he projected at 19% by

year-end, could be higher if fuel subsidies were removed.

Output at Africa's second-largest crude oil exporter has

declined steadily since hitting a peak of 2 million barrels per

day (bpd) in 2008. It aims to produce more natural gas to

counter part of the oil decline.