Côte d'Ivoire's economic growth is expected to halve to 3.6% in 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic, according to Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who announced on Tuesday a vast
economic and social support plan.
"Our economic growth, estimated at 7.2% for the year 2020, would be halved to 3.6%, in
the hypothesis of a control of the pandemic at the end of June," he said in an address to the nation on the
public television.
"The impact related to covid-19 is already perceptible on the national economy (...), many key sectors of
our economy is affected," and "people are being hit hard," Gon.
"To mitigate the impact of the pandemic", the Prime Minister, running for the presidential election
of October, announced an "economic, social and humanitarian" support plan amounting to "1.7 trillion
of CFA francs" (2.6 billion euros), or "about 5% of GDP" Ivorian.
This plan includes a range of measures to support businesses, in particular small and medium
companies and those in the informal sector (suspension of the payment of taxes, duties, social charges, etc.).
It also includes a specific support fund for export (cocoa, cashew nuts, rubber ..), wealth of the Ivorian economy.
Finally, specific measures are taken in favour of the poorest populations, such as the
charge by the State of electricity and water bills. "This concerns more than one million households, or about
six million of our fellow citizens" (out of a total population of 26 million), said Gon.
In the plan is a "solidarity fund" of 170 billion FCFA "to finance the most
vulnerable, through the expansion of social safety nets," he stressed.
Amadou Gon Coulibaly is the ruling party's candidate for the October presidential election. He hopes
succeed the current President Alassane Ouattara, in power since 2011, and who is not standing for re-election.
President Ouattara's economic action is widely welcomed, with Côte d'Ivoire as the champion of
growth in Africa. But observers accuse it of insufficient social action, with a
poverty is still very high. In 2019, the government launched a "government social program" on
two years.
Côte d'Ivoire is officially little affected by the epidemic caused by the new coronavirus, with
179 cases of contamination including one death, according to the latest assessment Tuesday. A curfew has been introduced and
Abidjan, the economic capital, has been isolated.