style="font-size:15px;"> and cocoa and to weather conditions. Despite attempts by thegovernment 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 has yet to fully recover. Continuing weak prices for commodity
exports, a bloated public-sector wage bill, and a large foreign debt
will continue to constrain economic development, this despite the 50%
currency devaluation in January 1994 designed to restore international
price competitiveness. A large, non-competitive import-substitution
sector continues to thrive under steep tariff and import quota
barriers.
National product:
GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $21 billion (1993 est.)
National product real growth rate:
NA
National product per capita:
$1,500 (1993 est.)
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:
$17.3 billion (1993 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate 6% (1990); accounts for 11% of GDP
Electricity:
capacity:
1,210,000 kW
production:
1.97 billion kWh
consumption per capita:
150 kWh (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 and
Southeast Asian heroin to Europe and occasionally to the US
Economic aid:
recipient:
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 - 592.05
(January 1994), 283.16 (1993), 264.69 (1992), 282.11 (1991), 272.26
(1990), 319.01 (1989)
note:
beginning 12 January 1994, the CFA franc was devalued to CFAF 100 per
French franc from CFAF 50 at which it had been fixed since 1948
Fiscal year:
calendar year
@Cote d'Ivoire, Communications
Railroads:
660 km (Burkina border to Abidjan, 1.00-meter gauge, single track,
except 25 km Abidjan-Anyama section is double track)
Highways:
total:
46,600 km
paved:
3,600 km
unpaved:
gravel, crushed stone, improved earth 32,000 km; unimproved earth
11,000 km
Inland waterways:
980 km navigable rivers, canals, and numerous coastal lagoons
Ports:
Abidjan, San-Pedro
Merchant marine:
8 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling
