IMF: Côte d’Ivoire making ‘good progress’ under supported programme

4 Oct 17

Côte d’Ivoire’s fiscal deficit is expected to decrease to 3.75% of GDP next year as its economic performance remains strong, despite the falling cacao prices, according to the IMF.

The African state’s performance under an IMF-supported programme was strong in the first half of this year, with all end-of-year targets met and three measures on tax policy and administration implemented by authorities, the IMF said in a statement.

“Despite the fall in cacao prices, strong economic performance continued in 2017 and the medium-term outlook remains strong,” said Dan Ghura, who led the IMF mission to Côte d’Ivoire.

“The IMF mission and the Ivoirien authorities agreed on policy measures for the 2018 budget to secure key programme objectives,” he added.

These measures should help bring the deficit down to the West African Economic and Monetary Union regional norm of 3% by 2019.

Ghura said local authorities and the IMF had agreed to maintain debt stability by stepping up revenue mobilisation, rationalising tax exceptions and strengthening the evaluation and prioritisation of new investment projects.

“The mission noted that good progress has been made in public finance management reforms, including close monitoring public enterprises’ debt,” he said. 

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