Presented By:
Muhammad Altantawi & Christian Brauns
The Ivory Coast
(cote d'ivoire)
The Ivory Coast has been under French rule for decades, ranging from 1887-1960. After its independence in 1960, the Ivory Coast became known as “the economic miracle of West Africa” because it enjoyed years of economic growth and stability. This growth was largely in part to Cote d’Ivoire’s first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who encouraged French technicians to stay in the Ivory Coast (about 50,000 did so) and help develop the economy. To help boost the economy, he kept taxes low and limited state intervention in the economy. A free market economy was put into place which supported the Ivory Coast’s agricultural industry which included, cocoa, coffee, mangos, avocados, pineapples, etc. All these together created economic growth for the Ivory Coast along with a high GDP. However, after the death of their president around their time, the economy drifted from these successful strategies. Today, the Ivory Coast is a mildly poor West African country.
The main good that the Ivory Coast exports is cocoa. However, the Ivory Coast surprisingly just recently released their own chocolate factory resulting in the Ivory Coast being able to make money by exporting and domestically selling cocoa. The effects of this new factory is more money made in the Ivory Coast and more jobs availible resulting in economic growth and an increase in GDP. However, there are also much more goods and natural resources that the ivory coast supplies such as coffee, bananas, and oil palms, which produce palm oil and kernels. Natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron, cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand, clay, palm oil, and hydropower.
The Ivory Coast has a GDP per capita of 1,528 (2014 est) or 888487.08 West African CFA franc, which is extremely low compared to the GDP per capita of the US which is around $53,041. However, compared to the past years the GDP per capita of the Ivory Coast has increased meaning that it is undergoing an economic growth.
The unemployment rate in the Ivory Coast is about 15.8% as of 2008, which, compared to the United States' unemployment rate of 7.3% in 2008 is relatively high, which means that there is a large amount of unemployed citizens which results in a reduced amount of workforce which is not good for the economy. Thankfully however, the GDP of the Ivory Coast is still increasing, and this unemployment rate may have drastically changed.
As of 2006, the percent below poverty lineof the ivory coast was around 42%, compared the the United States' 13% in 2006. By having more people under the unemployment line, the Ivory Coast has to pay much more money on services to help the needy, which leaves less money for other public services. However, this was in 2006 and since then the Ivory Coast has seen economic growth meaning that there is currently a lower percentage of people below poverty line.
Ivory Coast GDP Per Capita Graph:
Ivory Coast vs United States GDP Per Capita Graph:
The economic sectors for the Ivory Coast are as follows: agriculture: 26.3%, industry: 21.3%, and finally services: 52.4% from 2013. Surprisingly, even though the Ivory Coast has a huge amount of agriculture not alot of people are in the sector. However, the reason many people are in the services sector is because it is likely they are in the exporting services. Due to the Ivory Coast having a large amount of agriculture and natural resources, it does not have to spend much on importing as it has a large amount of agriculture to keep and export, resulting in economic growth.
The current percentage in taxes an average individual would have to pay is about 25%, which is the same for the average American's tax rate. However, this is pretty high for the residents of the Ivory Coast, in which the average person is a lower class. However, the more taxes the government collects the more it can invest in helping the country, which may explain a factor for the recent economic growth.
The two main environmental issues in the Ivory Coast are pollution and deforestation. Pollution is found everywhere, but in the Ivory Coast there was a drastic effect of pollution. From the 1990s-2010, the mortality rate has increased by 25%. This leads to a fewer population and a less workforce. However, the population has recovered and there is a fairly large workforce. However, for deforestation there is a different issue. Since the Ivory Coasts main natural resource is agriculture, the Ivory Coast is being damaged severly in terms of the economy. However, tehre a re multiple private farms now and programs set to prevent tampering with certain forests and wildlife. Currently, deforestation is not a main economic issue as the economy is still growing.
This graph shows the increase in GDP in the Ivory Coast frm 2005-2013. There is definately economic growth, but the GDP per capita is still dangerously low.
This graph compares the GDP per capita of the US and the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast has such a low GDP compared to the US that you can recognize the economic growth.
In 2014 the Ivory Coast had a total export value of 6041 million CFA franc and an import value of 5506.5 million CFA franc, resulting in a trade surplus of 1537.5 million CFA franc. This surplus may be used for many reasons such as implementing more public services, programs to prevent deforestation, etc. to help lead the economic growth. This surplus has helped with the increase in GDP for the Ivory Coast.
An example of deforestation. The Ivory Coast has passed laws forbidding the cutting of trees in certain forests.
