Africa Economy

In the half-decade following the return of political stability in 2011, Côte d’Ivoire was one among the fastest-growing economies in the world. 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, the more recent period of out-...

Decades of growth in trade and foreign investment have seen the economies of the world become more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. The production of goods and, increasingly, the provision of services has become fractured across borders as corporations create and integrate into regional and global value chains. These trends...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have a long and varied history in Côte d’Ivoire, dating back to at least 1960. To date, PPP projects have occurred almost exclusively in the infrastructure sector, and have been carried out under a variety of models, such as private sector management, leasing, concession, build-own-operate and build-own-...

Steady industrial growth coupled with increased spending on infrastructure and modest inflation helped sustain momentum in Côte d’Ivoire’s economy in 2017, balancing out lower returns from the agricultural sector. GDP growth in the country reached 7.6% that year, despite a fall in revenue due to lower cocoa prices and social unrest. In October...

Although macroeconomic performance remains robust compared to peer countries, there is clear evidence of a slowdown driven by the 50% fall cocoa prices between the late-2015 peak and early 2018. This puts pressure on tax revenue and the fiscal deficit while slowing GDP growth. The result is a higher debt-to-GDP ratio than anticipated, causing...

In the north-west of Abidjan lies Côte d’Ivoire’s most populous commune, Yopougon, or Yop-city, as it is often referred to by locals. One of Abidjan’s 13 communes, it is home to nearly 2m people, according to the most recent official census in 2014, which is roughly one-quarter of Abidjan’s total population. Separated from the rest of the city...