To help cover financing needs in 2011, especially for infrastructure projects (but also for tourism, agriculture, urban planning and education), the government launched its second-ever bond on the regional market (Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine) in January 2011, following an initial issue in 2006. The five-year bond, worth CFAfr47bn (US$94m), is larger than the 2006 issue (of CFAfr30bn), but offers the same 6.5% annual rate of return, which is comfortably ahead of inflation. The issue had been scheduled to close on February 28th but the two-week suspension of the Abidjan-based Bourse régionale ouest-africaine des valeurs mobilières in mid-February, because of the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, and its reopening on March 1st in Bamako, Mali, appear to have disrupted the process. By the closing date of this report there had been no information about the outcome.