IVORY COAST: Moody’s affirms Côte d’Ivoire’s Ba3 issuer rating

Wednesday March 28 2018

On 27^th March 2018, Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) affirmed Côte d’Ivoire’s Ba3 long-term issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings. The outlook remains stable. Côte d’Ivoire’s short-term issuer ratings have been also affirmed at NP.

The factors supporting the rating affirmation and stable outlook are:

1. Signs of increased resilience of the economy as the value-added content of exports rises and strong growth is sustained without a build-up in macroeconomic imbalances, partly offset by very low income levels that continue to constrain shock absorption capacity;
2. Prudent fiscal management and ongoing fiscal consolidation efforts maintaining broadly stable government debt around 40-45% of GDP; and
3. Latent political risk in the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections, notwithstanding an ongoing consolidation of power.

Concurrently, the country ceilings for foreign and local currency bonds and bank deposits remain unchanged at Baa3/Prime-3.

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