Civil conflict, partition, and the 2011 post-election collapse

Côte d'Ivoire's economic charts show a decade of near-stagnation starting in 2002, when a failed coup split the country into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south, cutting cocoa and cotton trade routes and halting most foreign investment for nearly a decade. The crisis culminated in the disputed November 2010 presidential election, when incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, triggering months of armed conflict that paralyzed Abidjan's port and banking system. The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), which issues the CFA franc shared by Côte d'Ivoire and seven other West African states, recorded real GDP contracting by close to 5% in 2011 even as the rest of the CFA zone kept growing, before activity rebounded sharply once Ouattara took office in April 2011 and the conflict ended. BCEAO's 2012 annual report noted that West African Economic and Monetary Union members returned to robust growth in 2012 after a very difficult 2011 marked by the post-electoral crisis in Côte d'Ivoire and drought in the Sahel, setting the stage for the rebound that followed.