Overview: The Ivory Coast 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 1989.

GDP: $10.0 billion, per capita $900; real growth rate - 6.4% (1988)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 7.5% (1988)

Unemployment rate: 14% (1985)

Budget: revenues $1.6 billion (1986); expenditures $2.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $504 million (1988 est.)

Exports: $2.2 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--cocoa 30%, coffee 20%, tropical woods 11%, cotton, bananas, pineapples, palm oil, cotton; partners--France, FRG, Netherlands, US, Belgium, Spain (1985)

Imports: $1.3 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--manufactured goods and semifinished products 50%, consumer goods 40%, raw materials and fuels 10%; partners--France, other EC, Nigeria, US, Japan (1985)

External debt: $14.7 billion (1989 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 0% (1987)

Electricity: 1,081,000 kW capacity; 2,440 million kWh produced, 210 kWh per capita (1989)

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 selfsufficient in bread grain and dairy products

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis on a small scale for the international drug trade

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-87), $344 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $4.6 billion

Currency: Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (plural--francs); 1 CFA franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1--287.99 (January 1990), 319.01 (1989), 297.85 (1988), 300.54 (1987), 346.30 (1986), 449.26 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Ivory Coast on this page is re-published from the 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Ivory Coast Economy 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Ivory Coast Economy 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.