Central African Republic

The former French colony of Ubangi-Shari became the Central African Republic upon independence in 1960. After three tumultuous decades of misrule - mostly by military governments - civilian rule was established in 1993; it lasted one decade. President Ange-Felix PATASSE's civilian government was plagued by unrest; in 2003 he was deposed in a military coup led by General Francois BOZIZE, who established a transitional government. Though the government has the tacit support of civil society groups and the main parties, a wide field of candidates contested the municipal, legislative, and presidential elections held in 2005 in which General BOZIZE was affirmed as president. The government still does not fully control the countryside, where pockets of lawlessness persist.

Main Airports

Bangui M’Poko (BGF)

U.S. Embassy

Blvd David Dacko, Bangui
tel: 236-61-02-0

Statistics

GDP: purchasing power parity:

$4.784 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

2.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity:

1,100 (2005 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

3.6% (2001 est.)

Labor force:

NA

Exports:

$131 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - partners:

Belgium 34.2%, France 9.5%, Spain 8.5%, Italy 7.9%, China 7%, Indonesia 6.2%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 4.6%, US 4.4% (2005)

Imports:

$203 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - partners:

France 16.5%, Netherlands 10.3%, Cameroon 9.7%, US 7.3% (2005)

Population:

4,303,356

Population growth rate:

1.53% (2006 est.)

Population Below Poverty Line:

NA

Major Industries:

gold and diamond mining, logging, brewing, textiles, footwear, assembly of bicycles and motorcycles

Employing Workers: 160*

Registering Property: 92*

Enforcing Contracts: 161*

Closing a Business: 151*

*2006 World Bank rank out of 175 countries

Starting a Business

The table below shows the number of steps and the amount of time needed to start a business, on average

Indicator	Central African Rep.	Region
Procedures (number)	10	11.1
Time (days)	14	61.8

Central African Rep. Risk Assessment

Country Rating

Rating: D

A high-risk political and economic situation and an often very difficult business environment can have a very significant impact on corporate payment behaviour. Corporate default probability is very high.

Risk Assessment

The economy continued to grow at a four-per cent clip in 2007 driven by the recovery of investment in mining extraction (diamond, gold and uranium), oil exploration and telecommunications. The growth of ore exports in value terms also contributed to the good economic performance. Household consumption moreover benefited from rising rural incomes — associated with improved farm productivity — and regular payment of civil service wages. Those trends should continue in 2008 amid a resumption of international aid. Defective transport and energy infrastructure continue however to undermine this landlocked country's growth potential.

Public sector finances improved significantly in 2007 thanks to better resource mobilisation and efforts to control spending. Pursuit of prudent fiscal policy should make it possible to stabilise the public sector deficit this year at a level below three per cent. Large external account imbalances have meanwhile persisted. The increase in diamond and wood exports in value terms spurred by demand from China has struggled to offset the increase in capital goods imports generated by the investment upturn. The growing oil bill has also undermined the trade balance. The services balance meanwhile has suffered from the country's landlocked condition which results in high transport costs. In this context, covering internal and external financing needs still depends on international aid. The country which has restored normal relations with multilateral financial institutions particularly by settling its arrears with the World Bank and African Development Bank became eligible in March 2007 for the HIPC programme reserved for highly indebted poor countries. It will however only be able to benefit from debt relief after successfully implementing the structural reform programmes agreed with the IMF in 2006.

The security situation remains unstable undermining the economic catch-up process. The ongoing armed rebellion in the country's northern region has hampered diamond and grain production and exploration for oil. President François Bozizé has initiated a national dialogue with two of the three main rebel groups agreeing to participate. The process will however have little chance of reaching agreement quickly on the resource-sharing issue especially in the Northeast. In this context the intervention this year by European peacekeeping forces should make it possible to prevent the turmoil from spreading throughout the region.

• Agriculture
• Apparel
• Arts & Crafts
• Automobile
• Bags, Cases & Boxes
• Chemicals
• Computer Hardware & Software
• Construction & Real Estate
• Consumer Electronics
• Electrical & Electronics
• Energy & Environment
• Food & Beverage
• Furniture & Furnishing
• Health & Medicine
• Home Supplies
• Industrial Supplies
• Lights & Lighting
• Machinery
• Mineral & Materials
• Office Supplies
• Security & Protection
• Service
• Sports & Entertainment
• Telecommunications
• Textile
• Toys
• Transportation