Cote d’Ivoire have been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, causing a 43 percent drop in household income, according to a study by the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) commissioned by the Ivorian Employers’ Association.
In a presentation, NIS official Franck Hervé Akaffou said that 72 percent of households said they were unable to meet certain household expenses, including water and electricity bills, in front of economic operators.
The study showed that “nearly six out of ten households felt that it would be difficult to meet their expenses. In terms of household expenses, food has increased by 47percent against 26 percent for communication.”
Heads of households also reported a drop in income. For 72 percent of them, the decline is very marked among heads of households working in the private and informal sectors.
This decline increased with the level of household wealth. Rich households will experience a greater drop in consumption than poor households.
The study reported on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis over the next two quarters. It showed that if the crisis persists, households will lose 4 percentage points over the next quarter and 10 percentage points in two quarters.
Among informal sector companies, “almost all of them have been impacted, i.e. 94 percent.” And, these effects are noticeable at the customer level. Anything that has a direct impact on households.
Microenterprises in this sector will experience a 44 percent cancellation of their orders, a fact that has led some entities to close down.
The heads of informal production units have reported a 79 percent drop in production, which has impacted their profits, which are expected to drop to 84 percent. Others have had to lay off staff in view of the cash-flow pressure, which is 64 percent in the informal units.
Economic activity in the informal sector is expected to decline by 26 percent compared to economic activity in 2019. Already, nearly 23,000 jobs have been destroyed and projections indicate that by the end of December 2020, 131,000 jobs will be cut if the crisis persists.
AP/ls/lb/abj/APA