The U.S. Department of State Investment Climate Statements provide information on the business climates of more than 170 economies and are prepared by economic officers stationed in embassies and posts around the world. They analyze a variety of economies that are or could be markets for U.S. businesses.
Topics include Openness to Investment, Legal and Regulatory systems, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property Rights, Transparency, Performance Requirements, State-Owned Enterprises, Responsible Business Conduct, and Corruption.
These statements highlight persistent barriers to further U.S. investment. Addressing these barriers would expand high-quality, private sector-led investment in infrastructure, further women’s economic empowerment, and facilitate a healthy business environment for the digital economy. To access the ICS, visit the U.S. Department of State Investment Climate Statement website.
Executive Summary
Côte d’Ivoire offers a welcoming environment and exciting new opportunities for U.S. investment. The government wants to deepen commercial cooperation with the United States and is renewing and modernizing a commercial MOU with the United States. Côte d’Ivoire boasts one of the fastest sustained economic growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa, owing to nearly a decade of real GDP growth averaging 8.2 percent (between 2012 and 2019) that proved resilient during the worst of the pandemic (registering 2 percent growth in 2020 and 7 percent in 2021). Despite global external economic pressures, GPD growth is projected at 6.2 percent in 2023. As the economic engine of Francophone West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire accounts for more than 39 percent of the total West African Monetary Union (WAEMU). The Euro-pegged CFA franc has mitigated some of the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine like spikes in inflation. Inflation has remained stable ranging from 4.7 to 5 percent in 2022.
Côte d’Ivoire provides vital supply lines to the Sahel and wider Francophone West African region. Visits by Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves in 2022 and the first stop for World Bank Group nominee (now President) Ajay Banga in 2023, in addition to a series of high-level U.S. government visits in 2022-2023, reflect its regional importance and strong bilateral relationship with the United States. Ivoirian authorities continue to prioritize structural reforms to improve the business environment, modernize public administration, increase human capital, and boost productivity and private sector development.
Côte d’Ivoire stands as an example of astute policymaking. The government’s National Development Plan and Strategy 2030 seeks to digitize the government for a more transparent and inclusive economy. It directs the government to implement policies in support of transforming the economy away from a commodity export focus to increase value-added processing contributions to GDP and job creation. Together, these efforts and its significant manufacturing base, second only to Nigeria in the region, offer opportunities for U.S. technology, ingenuity, and services.
In February, Fitch Ratings credit agency reaffirmed the country’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at BB- with a stable outlook and thereby, confirmed Côte d’Ivoire’s strong growth prospects against low development indicators and high commodity dependence. The IMF highlighted Côte d’Ivoire’s measures to strengthen macroeconomic stability and reverse widening fiscal and external imbalances; in May, the IMF Executive Board approved a 40-month $3.5 billion Extended Credit Facility.