Benin - Economy

Изображение-2: 

GDP per capita – 901 US dollars (2018, at current prices, UNCTAD).
GDP – 10,5 bln US dollars (2018, at current prices, UNCTAD).
GDP – gross domestic product

Exports (marchandise) – 2,5 bln US Dollars (2018, at current prices, UNCTAD).
Imports (marchandise) – 4,1 bln US Dollars (2018, at current prices, UNCTAD).

Exports (services) – 574 mln US Dollars (2018, at current prices, UNCTAD).
Imports (services) – 741 mln US Dollars (2018, at current prices, UNCTAD).

Main export commodities - cotton, cashews, shea butter, textiles, palm products, seafood.
Main import commodities - foodstuffs, capital goods, petroleum products

Economy overview
Benin's economy is based on agriculture and services.
Cotton is the main commercial crop. Its value fluctuates with world prices which are volatile, and it faces competition from subsidised cotton growers in the USA and elsewhere http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-count...

Cotton production and processing accounts for about 5% of Benin’s GDP and 27% of exports. There is also production of textiles, palm products, and cocoa beans. Maize (corn), beans, rice, peanuts, cashews, pineapples, cassava, yams, and other various tubers are grown for local subsistence www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Benin

The other mainstay of the economy is re-export trade with neighbouring countries, particularly Nigeria. Much of this is unrecorded and some estimate that this trade represents over 30% of GDP. It is estimated that 75% of imports into Cotonou port are destined for Nigeria.
Benin has suffered at various times when Nigeria has tightened its import rules partly to stop the thriving smuggling of goods from Benin. The government relies on customs receipts for about half of its income. Nigerian trade policy is critical to the health of the economy.

A plan for the privatisation programme for the cotton parastatal, the telecoms and public utility sectors and the port of Cotonou was presented by the government in July 2007. The privatisation of the cotton parastatal became mired in problems leading the government to halt the process in late 2007 http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-count...

Benin began producing a modest quantity of offshore oil in October 1982. Production ceased in recent years but exploration of new sites is ongoing www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Benin
Offshore oil exploration has started in a field near the border with Nigeria but it is not yet known if it contains exploitable reserves http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-count...

A modest fishing fleet provides fish and shrimp for local subsistence and export to Europe. Formerly government-owned commercial activities are now privatized.
A French brewer acquired the former state-run brewery. Smaller businesses are privately owned by Beninese citizens, but some firms are foreign owned, primarily French and Lebanese. The private commercial and agricultural sectors remain the principal contributors to growth.
The manufacturing sector is confined to some light industry, which is mainly involved in processing primary products and the production of consumer goods.
The service sector has grown quickly, stimulated by economic liberalization and fiscal reform, and the use of modern technology such as automobiles and computers has grown considerably as a result www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Benin

Benin’s immediate energy needs are severe. The government has announced an ambitious plan to meet latent demand over the next decade. Private sector engagement in independent power production (IPP) aims to increase electrical power production and reduce Benin’s dependence on Nigeria and Ghana. The Government promotes build, operate, and transfer (BOT) projects to reach its stated goal of 4,000 MW available through power plants and hydropower dams.
Benin signed a second Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact in 2015 budgeted at $375 million and devoted entirely to power sector improvements. The project will increase Benin’s domestic generation capacity by up to 78 megawatts (MW) through investments in solar (MCC’s largest to date at 45MW), thermal (rehabilitation of 32 MW) and hydro generation (rehabilitation of 1 MW run of river unit).
https://www.export.gov/article?id=Benin-Market-Overview
Inflation has subsided and remains just 1% over the past several years.
Benin’s 2001 privatization policy continues in telecommunications, water, electricity, and agriculture. The four projects focused on access to land, access to financial services, access to justice, and access to markets (including modernization of the port).
The Port of Cotonou is the largest component of Benin’s economy with revenues projected to account for more than 40% of Benin’s national budget.
Benin with its modern port can be used as a platform to reach over 100 million consumers in neighboring landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad, and over 155 million in Nigeria alone.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bn.html

The currency is CFA franc.
CFA - "Communaute Financiere Africaine" (African financial community). Frank CFA has been used since 1945.
Frank CFA (currency code XOF) is the single currency of the regional integration association – the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, fr. – L’Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine UEMOA).
WAEMU members - 8 countries, 7 French-speaking: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, 1 Portuguese-speaking: Guinea-Bissau.
The monetary policy of WAEMU is controlled by a regional bank – the Central Bank of the West African States (fr. Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest – BCEAO), headquartered in Dakar (Senegal); the franc CFA guarantor is the French treasury.
Frank CFA has a fixed exchange rate to the euro:
1 euro = 655,957 CFA francs.
Frank CFA exists in two variants, each with the same parity to the euro: the CFA franc for the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (currency code XOF) and the CFA franc (currency code XAF) for the countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), which consists of 6 members: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon.
Although Central African CFA francs and West African CFA francs have the same monetary value against euro, West African CFA coins and banknotes are not accepted in countries using Central African CFA francs, and vice versa.