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Chad Economy To Grow Over 10 Pct In 2014: Finance Minister
By Tim Cocks
30/03/2014
ABUJA (Reuters) - Chad's economy will grow more than 10 percent in 2014, driven by crude exports and agriculture, its finance minister said, insisting a Chinese oil firm fined locally for environmental violations would have to pay up.
The landlocked central African country, one of the continent's poorest, has seen strong growth over the past decade as it emerged as an oil producer. The IMF says per capita income has more than doubled since the start of oil production in 2003.
A decline in production and lower crude prices in 2013 cut Chad's GDP growth by more than half to 3.6 percent.
But Finance Minister Mariam Nour said 2014 would see a fast recovery on the back of higher oil receipts and advances in agriculture. Her 10 percent growth forecast was in line with an IMF projection published this month.
"Chad is creating the conditions necessary for becoming an emerging market," she told Reuters on the sidelines of an economic conference in Abuja late on Saturday. "We are getting the economy back on its feet."
Besides oil, a government programme at improving food security in a country that mostly straddles the rocky, semi-arid Sahel and the Sahara, had boosted agricultural output through the supply of fertilisers and machinary such as tractors.
Chad is involved in two peacekeeping operations - in neighbouring Central African Republic and Mali, but Nour said they had not had a significant impact on government finances.
"Chad had a duty to intervene, because security is a regional problem," she said. "If Mali and Central African Republic are destablised, so would Chad be."
Nour said discussions meant to pave the way for the privatisation of the central African country's third-largest mobile operator Sotel, nearly four years after a failed attempt to sell a controlling stake to Libya's sovereign wealth fund, were on course, but could not give a timeframe for the sale.
Chad said on Friday it had fined a local unit of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) $1.2 billion for environmental violations. [ID:nL6N0MI3YX]
Nour said the fine would have to be paid. "Oil companies need to have a plan for managing the environment," she said. "If any haven't, it is to be expected that will pay a penalty."
The government suspended all of CNPC's activities in the country in August for violating environmental standards while drilling for oil in the south, and ordered an audit of all Chad's crude oil explorations.
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