Côte d'Ivoire Economic Outlook

• Economic recovery in 2012-13 will depend on strengthening the peace process and restoring the country’s productive capacity.
  
• The country is expected to reach completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in 2012.
  
• Before the crisis that followed the elections the rate of unemployment among the young was put at 24.2%, a factor that contributes to persistent poverty.
  

Economic recovery is expected in 2012, provided that a number of conditions are met. These include a continuing normalisation of the security situation, strengthening peace-building, an improvement in the business climate and attempts to restore the country’s productive capacity with the introduction of incentives in favour of the private sector. Growth will be driven by public investment and vigorous secondary and tertiary sectors. The rate of inflation should drop progressively thanks to flexibility in the replenishment of markets and the stabilisation of the prices of oil products. In the medium term the overall macroeconomic framework is tied to the 2012-14 economic and financial programme supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The implementation of this may make it possible for the country to reach completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in 2012 and benefit from the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Reaching the macroeconomic targets depends on speeding up the reforms that seek to improve governance and the business climate, as well as good performances by the financial, energy and coffee/cocoa sectors. At the political level strengthening and maintaining peacekeeping through more intensive dialogue and an improvement in the security environment are major challenges for the country.

There is a high rate of unemployment among the young and many jobs are short-term.

Entry by young people into the world of work is held back in particular by the mismatch between training and employment and a weak system for finding job opportunities. The agency responsible for studying and promoting employment (AGEPE) has insufficient means to fulfil its purpose effectively.