_Economy
_#_Overview: 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 1990.

_#_GDP: $10 billion, per capita $800; real growth rate - 2.9% (1990)

_#_Inflation rate (consumer prices): -0.8% (1990 est.)

_#_Unemployment rate: 14% (1985)

_#_Budget: revenues $2.8 billion (1989 est.); expenditures $4.1
billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1989 est.)

_#_Exports: $2.5 billion (f.o.b., 1989);

commodities--cocoa 30%, coffee 20%, tropical woods 11%, cotton,
bananas, pineapples, palm oil, cotton;

partners--France, FRG, Netherlands, US, Belgium, Spain (1985)

_#_Imports: $1.4 billion (f.o.b., 1989);

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: $15.0 billion (1990 est.)

_#_Industrial production: growth rate - 6% (1989); accounts for
17% of GDP

_#_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 self-sufficient in bread grain and dairy products

_#_Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis on a small scale for
the international drug trade

_#_Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $356
million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
(1970-88), $4.9 billion

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

_#_Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF)
per US$1--256.