OUAGADOUGOU (AFP) — Burkina Faso's economic growth rate is set to tumble this year to 4.25 percent from last year's 5.7 percent due to sharply lower cotton output, the country's top revenue spinner, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.
The general annual rate of inflation, which stands at 2.2 percent, however should drop slightly, an IMF team of experts said in a report at the end of its two-week mission to the west African nation.
"The main factor in the growth slowdown compared to earlier expectations is a reduction in cotton production by almost a third, caused primarily by late rains," the IMF said.
Next year the growth rate in the world's fourth most impoverished country is expected to rise slightly to 4.5 percent "as cotton production is expected to rebound."
Africa's leading grower of cotton, Burkina Faso, had set itself an average production target of 700,000 tons of cotton lint this year.
But the rains and floods which hit the country in mid August and affected more than 40,000 people in addition to destroying some 5,000 hectares of farmland, could pose a potential threat to cotton production.
The IMF raised among other issues, concerns at delays in the implementation of reforms in tax and customs administration, but said the authorities were working on addressing the delays.
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