Economy

Having missed out on much of the developing and emerging markets boom that characterised the global economy during 2000-10 due to its domestic political crisis, a more recent period of out-performance has allowed Côte d’Ivoire to bounce back, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a bright medium-term outlook. Strong investment, particularly in infrastructure, has been an important driver of this. According to the IMF, investment as a share of GDP is expected to increase steadily from the 18.2% achieved in 2015 to 20.1% in 2018, before reaching 21.9% by 2020. This should be bolstered by recent efforts to root out corruption and cement rules of law, which have seen improvements in the judicial system and are helping the country move closer to emerging market status. Achieving the latter is the primary goal of the National Development Plan 2016-20.

This chapter contains interviews with Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Minister of Budget and State Portfolio; Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank; Emmanuel Essis, Director-General, Investment Promotion Agency of Côte d’Ivoire; and Jean-Marie Ackah, President, General Confederation of Businesses of Côte d’Ivoire.