Country Report Cote d'Ivoire May 2011

Economic policy: IMF and World Bank discuss a new economic programme

The chiefs of the World Bank and the IMF, Robert Zoellick and Dominique Strauss-Kahn respectively, have publicly indicated their willingness to resume co-operation with Côte d'Ivoire's government. On April 12th they met with the acting Ivorian finance minister, Charles Koffi Diby, at the World Bank's Spring Meetings in Washington DC, to discuss an economic recovery plan for 2011. The IMF is believed to be considering granting a rapid credit facility (RCD), which is designed for countries affected by natural disasters or conflict and provides immediate disbursements of emergency funds at a low interest rate and with limited conditionality. This should help to alleviate the immediate humanitarian and economic crisis, after which the Fund plans to move the country to a fully-funded programme-most probably an extended credit facility (ECF)-and get it back on track for the debt write-off under the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative that was suspended late last year. Key to the success of these discussions will be Mr Ouattara's ability to restore security and re-establish government operations, without which donor relations will remain in limbo.

© 2011 The Economist lntelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved
Whilst every effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of this information, The Economist lntelligence Unit Ltd. cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this information
IMPRINT