REFILE-Angola to launch sovereign wealth fund in 2009

(changes month in dateline to June)

LUANDA, June 19 (Reuters) - Angola plans to launch a sovereign fund in 2009 to invest the oil-producing nation's wealth abroad, Finance Minister Severim de Morais said on Friday.

Plans to create the fund, known as the Fundo Soberano Angolano, were announced in November by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, but the project has since been delayed due to the global economic downturn.

Asked whether the fund would be launched this year, de Morais replied: "Yes, our aim is to launch the fund in 2009."

Angola, which rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer, has used state-owned oil firm Sonangol as a type of sovereign fund to buy shares in foreign companies, such as a 10 percent stake in Portugal's largest listed bank Millennium bcp (BCP.LS).

Angola's coffers have been flush with cash since the end of the country's civil war in 2002, due largely to the rising price of oil. The African nation raked in an estimated $41 billion last year, mostly from oil exports, according to JP Morgan.

But oil is now trading at about half of last year's high of over $147 a barrel, stoking fears about the fiscal health of oil producers and prompting Angola's government to be more rigorous with future public investments.

Angola's economy is expected to grow 6.2 percent in 2009, down from 13.8 percent last year, according to the country's recently revised budget plan for the year. (Reporting by Henrique Almeida; editing by Chris Pizzey)