Economy

Although the country’s humid climate hinders the preservation of biological remains, archaeological finds suggest that humans may have inhabited areas that became Côte d’Ivoire as early as the Neolithic period, from 15,000 BCE onwards. The first recorded history, however, comes from Berber merchants from North Africa who plied trans-Saharan...

In its ambition to maintain sustainable growth, one of the main challenges faced by Côte d’Ivoire is its capacity to increase income, particularly its tax revenue. Although the amount of duties collected rose steadily in recent years, the tax-to-GDP ratio has remained relatively low, rising modestly from 15.1% in 2015 to 16.5% in 2018, some...

Global trade faces protectionist headwinds that are dampening the outlook for growth in the coming years. According to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), trade volume grew by 4.7% in 2017 and is expected to have moderated slightly to 4.4% in 2018 and dip to 4% in 2019. Although this means growth will fall below the 4.8% average seen since...

As the world’s nations and businesses become increasingly interconnected, so too does the flow of global migration. According to the OECD’s “International Migration Outlook 2018”, in 2017 some 258m people resided in a country other than the one they were born in and more than 5m foreign-born persons settled in OECD countries. The flow of...

Since the end of the political and military crisis in 2011, inward foreign direct investment (FDI) to Côte d’Ivoire has progressed continually, doubling from $302m in 2011 to $675m in 2017, and reaching $607m in the first half of 2018 alone. Strong economic performance and the government’s focus on rebuilding infrastructure have driven Côte d’...