LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola, which has been hard hit by depressed oil prices, on Friday unveiled a 2017 budget of 7.3 trillion kwanza ($44.22 billion) with a budget deficit of 5.9 percent of gross domestic product. Aia–Eza Silva, the budget state secretary, told reporters the budget forecasts sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest economy to grow 2.1 percent next year compared with estimates of 1.3 percent this year, and is based on an average crude oil price in 2017 of $46 a barrel. Angola, which is heavily dependent on crude exports, has had to slash spending and growth forecasts before. In July Luanda halved its 2016 economic growth forecast and slashed government spending as lower oil prices hammered state revenues. (Reporting by Herculano Coroado; Editing by Ed Stoddard)