The International Monetary Fund mission that arrived in Cape Verde on October 4 has already concluded that the country’s economy grew by 10.8% last year. The information is still being handled with a certain degree of care, as the government has yet to be officially informed of the figures.

According to a reliable source, the data gathered until now by the IMF mission point toward a 10.8% increase in Cape Verde’s gross domestic product in 2006, the highest single increase of the past eight years. In 1999, the growth rate came to 11.3%, but since then had never risen beyond 6%. This year, growth in Cape Verde’s GDP is expected to stand at between 6% and 7%.

It remains to be seen whether this double-digit growth will prove to be sustainable, or if it is simply the late result of the considerable investments made in 2005, which saw the run-ups to the 2006 legislative elections. In any case, tourism is expected to have contributed considerably to this growth, considering the performance of this sector, which has been responsible for an increasingly large portion of the Cape Verdean economy over the last several years.

The IMF mission to Cape Verde, which arrived in the country on Thursday of last week, is set to last for ten days and comes within the framework of the country’s Policy Support Instrument.

Source: A Semana