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 Ivory Coast's Finance Ministry has revised down its economic growth forecasts for 2010 and 2011 by a percentage point each to 3 and 4 percent, respectively, according to an estimate obtained by Reuters.
A source at the Finance Ministry, who provided the estimate but declined to be named, said this was because fresh data had come in since January from key sectors including cocoa, oil and financial services.
West Africa's former economic powerhouse has suffered sluggish economic growth rates ever since the 2002-3 war divided the country in two, crippling business and frightening away foreign investment.
Most analysts are cautious with growth estimates in the absence of elections needed to reunite the country and return it to normal. The electoral process is currently blocked because of wrangling over voter registration.
The polls in the world's top cocoa grower were originally supposed to take place in 2005, and many Ivoriens doubt they will ever happen.
Ivory Coast is awaiting further debt-relief from donors under the IMF-World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HPIC) programme and has already benefitted from extensive debt relief from major donors like France in the past year.
It is in the process of swapping 2.2 billion euro of defaulted sovereign debt with the London Club of commercial creditors.
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