Cote d'Ivoire--Economy
CIA FactbookThe World Factbook 1993: Cote d'Ivoire Economy

Overview: Cote d'Ivoire is among the world's largest producers and exporters of coffee, cocoa beans, and palm-kernel oil. Consequently, the economy is highly sensitive to fluctuations in international prices for coffee and cocoa and to weather conditions. Despite attempts by the government to diversify, the economy is still largely dependent on agriculture and related industries. The agricultural sector accounts for over one-third of GDP and about 80% of export earnings and employs about 85% of the labor force. A collapse of world cocoa and coffee prices in 1986 threw the economy into a recession, from which the country had not recovered by 1990. Continuing low prices for commodity exports, an overvalued exchange rate, a bloated public-sector wage bill, and a large foreign debt hindered economic recovery in 1991. The government, which has sponsored various economic reform programs, especially in agriculture, projected an increase of 1.6% in GNP in 1992.

National product: GDP - exchange rate conversion - $10 billion (1991)

National product real growth rate: -0.6% (1991)

National product per capita: $800 (1991)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1% (1991 est.)

Unemployment rate: 14% (1985)

Budget: revenues $2.3 billion; expenditures $3.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $274 million (1990 est.)

Exports: $2.8 billion (f.o.b., 1990) commodities: cocoa 30%, coffee 20%, tropical woods 11%, petroleum, cotton, bananas, pineapples, palm oil, cotton partners: France, FRG, Netherlands, US, Belgium, Spain (1985) Imports: $1.6 billion (f.o.b., 1990) commodities: food, capital goods, consumer goods, fuel partners: France 29%, other EC 29%, Nigeria 16%, US 4%, Japan 3% (1989)

External debt: $15 billion (1990 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 6% (1990); accounts for 11% of GDP

Electricity: 1,210,000 kW capacity; 1,970 million kWh produced, 150 kWh per capita (1991)

Industries: foodstuffs, wood processing, oil refinery, automobile assembly, textiles, fertilizer, beverage

Agriculture: most important sector, contributing one-third to GDP and 80% to exports; cash crops include coffee, cocoa beans, timber, bananas, palm kernels, rubber; food crops - corn, rice, manioc, sweet potatoes; not self-sufficient in bread grain and dairy products

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis; mostly for local consumption; some international drug trade; transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin to Europe

Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $356 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $5.2 billion

Currency: 1 CFA franc (CFAF)=100 centimes

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 - 274.06 (January 1993), 264.69 (1992), 282.11 (1991), 272.26 (1990), 319.01 (1989), 297.85 (1988)

Fiscal year: calendar year