Chad

Chad, part of France's African holdings until 1960, endured three decades of civil warfare as well as invasions by Libya before a semblance of peace was finally restored in 1990. The government eventually drafted a democratic constitution, and held flawed presidential elections in 1996 and 2001. In 1998, a rebellion broke out in northern Chad, which sporadically flares up despite several peace agreements between the government and the rebels. In 2005 new rebel groups emerged in western Sudan and have made probing attacks into eastern Chad. Power remains in the hands of an ethnic minority. In June 2005, President Idriss DEBY held a referendum successfully removing constitutional term limits.

Main Airports

N’Djaména (NDJ)

U.S. Embassy

Avenue Felix Eboue, N'Djamena
tel: 235-51-70-09

Statistics

GDP: purchasing power parity:

$14.79 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity:

1,500 (2005 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:

NA

Exports:

$3.016 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - partners:

US 78%, China 9.9%, Taiwan 4.1% (2005)

Imports:

$749.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - partners:

France 21.1%, Cameroon 15.5%, US 12.1%, Belgium 6.8%, Portugal 4.6%, Saudi Arabia 4.3%, Netherlands 4% (2005)

Population:

9,944,201 (July 2006 est.)

Population growth rate:

2.93% (2006 est.)

Population Below Poverty Line:

80% (2001 est.)

Major Industries:

oil, cotton textiles, meatpacking, beer brewing, natron (sodium carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction materials

Employing Workers: 148*

Registering Property: 122*

Enforcing Contracts: 171*

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	Chad	Region
Procedures (number)	19	11.1
Time (days)	75	61.8

Chad 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 discovery of oil fields has driven economic growth since 2000 spurring investments extraction and pipeline construction. The gradual depletion of resources and technical failure seem however to be limiting oil production. Economic growth nonetheless rebounded slightly in 2007 spurred by soaring prices and could even reach four per cent this year driven by Chinese investments in oil exploration. The economy should also benefit from a dynamic telecommunications sector and subject to good weather conditions an increase in farm production — with agriculture employing 70 per cent of the population. In the longer term, the development of Chad (ranked 173rd out of 177 on the Human Development Index) rests on further diversification of the productive fabric, which will notably come up against the scarcity of skilled labour and the deficiencies of a business climate marked especially by corruption.

The normalisation of relations with the World Bank in 2006 enabled oil revenues belonging to the budget to be unfrozen and a slight budget surplus to be maintained in 2007. But the public budget should be penalised in 2008, with public expenditures on the rise notably in the security and infrastructure sectors. The trade balance should continue to benefit from the upsurge in oil prices notwithstanding the substantial discount applicable to Chadian crude. The investment-income balance meanwhile has remained deeply in deficit undermined by dividend repatriation by oil companies. In this context the current account continues to show a deficit. Nevertheless, incoming foreign direct investment largely covers financing needs.

Despite the peace accords concluded under Libya's supervision in October 2007 relations between President Idris Deby and the East Chadian have remained tense. The president should however be able to leverage divisions among rebel factions and reconciliation with the group from Libreville to regain control over the political situation. The tensions building up in Darfur again could however spread to neighbouring countries especially Chad, notwithstanding the highly controversial interposition of a joint UN/EU peacekeeping force this year.

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• Energy & Environment
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• Home Supplies
• Industrial Supplies
• Lights & Lighting
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