TAG: Africa
Africa has gradually worked its way up over the years to rank at the top of business and investor portfolios worldwide, and boasts some of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Long regarded as one of the most impoverished regions, Africa has produced a number of success stories in recent years, bringing with it an array of investors, businesses and jobs. But the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic casts a grey cloud over what was a promising outlook for the year.
In the face of economic challenges after the political upheaval of the 2000-11 period, Côte d’Ivoire has implemented major reforms, allowing it to become one of the most dynamic economies in Africa. Significant public investment, combined with strong prices for many agricultural cash crops, helped achieve average annual GDP growth of 8.5% between 2012 and 2018, and preliminary growth figures stood at 7.5% in 2019. Moves made to diversify the economy away from a reliance on raw exports are already paying dividends, and there has been a renewed focus on developing the business environment to further encourage private-sector-led growth.