Ivory Coast has demonstrated sustained appeal to international debt markets, raising $1.3 billion through a 15-year Eurobond in February at a coupon of 5.39% — attracting a $6.3 billion order book from 270 institutional investors and finishing nearly five times oversubscribed.
The result positions the West African economy as one of the continent’s most closely watched sovereign borrowers.
The bond’s success preceded a further vote of confidence from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose executive board completed the sixth review of Ivory Coast’s programme under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF) — two concessional lending arrangements designed to support medium-term fiscal adjustment — clearing an immediate disbursement of approximately $832.8 million.
The combined release draws on three facilities: SDR 247.8 million under the EFF, SDR 123.9 million under the ECF, and SDR 243.9 million under the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), which supports climate-linked reforms.
The Fund confirmed that all end-December 2025 quantitative targets and structural benchmarks were met, including the completion of climate risk insurance for agriculture and the tendering of two solar plants.
Fitch Ratings upgraded Ivory Coast’s long-term foreign-currency rating to BB in December 2025 — two notches below investment grade and the second-highest sovereign rating in sub-Saharan Africa after Botswana. Public debt stood at 57.1% of GDP in 2025, with the growth base broadening beyond cocoa into hydrocarbons and mining.
The outlook is not without risk. The IMF projects economic growth will moderate to 6% in 2026, down from 6.5% in 2025, citing weaker external demand linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Inflation, which fell to near zero last year, is forecast to rise to 3.3% in 2026 on higher food and energy costs, while the current account deficit is expected to widen to 2.3% of GDP.
For international investors tracking African sovereign debt, the Eurobond’s reception signals that appetite for well-rated West African paper remains robust even as global risk conditions shift.
Ivory Coast’s combination of IMF programme discipline, a strengthening credit rating, and a diversifying revenue base continues to differentiate it within a regional peer group where fiscal credibility remains unevenly distributed.
The country’s trajectory will be closely watched across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) — the eight-member currency bloc that shares the CFA franc — where Ivory Coast’s fiscal performance carries weight for regional borrowing conditions and investor sentiment more broadly.
