Ivorian Leader Sees Growth Averaging as Much as 8% Through 2023

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast’s growth rate is expected to average as much as 8 percent over the next five years, President Alassane Ouattara said in an interview with Radio Francaise Internationale.

The economy is expected to expand 8 percent this year, one of the fastest growth rates in the world, with inflation projected at 1 percent, the budget deficit at 3-4 percent of gross domestic product and public debt less than 40 percent of GDP, Ouattara said in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“The country’s stable, the economy’s moving,” Ouattara said. “Growth rates will continue to be between 7 and 8 percent over the next two, three, five years.”

Ouattara’s first term saw record economic growth that averaged 9 percent from 2012 to 2016. His second term has been turbulent, hit by a series of army mutinies and a general strike by civil servants over pension payments. Even so, the economy expanded 7.8 percent in 2017 and was forecast to grow at least 7 percent last year and this, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Ivory Coast is preparing to hold presidential elections next year. While the country has a limit of two presidential terms, Ouattara has said a new constitution in 2016 allows him to seek a third term, a statement that’s been criticized by his opponents.

Source: Bloomberg Business News