This move positions Côte d’Ivoire as the second best credit rating in Sub-Saharan Africa, behind Botswana and alongside South Africa. The country joins the same rating category as Brazil and Vietnam.
A number of key factors contributed to Moody’s upgrade, in particular the resilience of Côte d’Ivoire’s economy, which is showing sustained growth, with a rate of 6.8 percent in 2023 compared with 6.7 percent the previous year.
“This upgrade reflects Côte d’Ivoire’s economic resilience, underpinned by growing economic diversification, rising income levels and a robust economic outlook,” the agency says.
Economic activity in Côte d’Ivoire remains robust, although it has faced challenges arising from the Russia-Ukraine crisis, global monetary tightening, and growing political instability within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).
Growth was largely driven by sustained public investment and strong domestic consumption. Continued investment, particularly in the industrial sector, offers strong economic prospects for the country.
Social measures and support for certain sectors of activity have helped to bring inflation down to 4.8 percent in 2023, after reaching 5.2 percent in 2022, its highest level in a decade, due to rising food, transport and energy prices.
In January, Côte d’Ivoire raised $2.6 billion to strengthen its position in the sustainable finance market, through two bonds (9-year and 13-year). Subscriptions reached a record amount of more than 8 billion dollars.
Continued investment in various areas, as well as the exploitation of recent oil discoveries, combined with prudent macroeconomic policies, should boost investor confidence and increase productivity.
Italian energy group ENI’s discovery of the Baleine field, the largest hydrocarbon discovery ever made by an oil company in Côte d’Ivoire, has boosted the country’s hopes of energy autonomy.
ENI began producing oil and natural gas from the deep-water Baleine field in south-east Côte d’Ivoire on 27 August 2023. The resources of the Baleine field are estimated at 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 3,300 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
With an estimated production capacity of 150,000 barrels per day by 2027, exploitation of the Baleine field should boost national oil production to around 200,000 barrels per day, compared with just 30,000 barrels per day today.
By 2026, the field is expected to generate nearly 200 million cubic feet of gas, increasing the country’s natural gas production capacity to nearly 430 million cubic feet, thereby helping to improve control over the inputs needed to generate electricity.
These figures reinforce Côte d’Ivoire’s credit rating. Projects aimed at developing value chains also have the potential to improve agricultural productivity and stimulate the transformation of the economy, which will support long-term growth prospects.
