The Comoros' Economy

Comoros is one of the poorest countries in the world with an economy that is barely growing and only functions at the subsistence level. Comoros is a group of three islands off of the coast of Africa. A big part of the problem is the lack of an effective transportation network. This makes it very difficult for Comoros to trade with other countries. The result has been that the country has largely been unable to diversify its economy. This has resulted in very slow growth that has been made even worse by the political instability in the country.

The only real source of income that Comoros has is agriculture, they are heavily dependent on vanilla and cloves as their main exports. Along with fishing this employs the vast majority of the citizens. Despite the fact that the country exports vanilla and cloves they are not self sufficient in food production. This means that they have to import rice from other countries. The result is that most people in Comoros live in poverty with no real chance that they will get out of it. Unless the economy can be diversified it is unlikely that this will change.

The government hasn’t helped matters any by making Comoros an undesirable destination for foreign investment. There is already little enough reason for investors to consider Comoros without having to deal with a great deal of red tape and excessive regulation. This has resulted in the country receiving almost no foreign investment. For the most part the only money coming into the country is in the form of foreign aid. There are however quite a few citizens working abroad who also remit money back to Comoros. This has helped to provide some foreign currency to Comoros.

The prospects for Comoros are not good as the country has little in the way of natural resources. There are also issues with a poorly educated and unskilled workforce. This results in a very high level of unemployment. Add to all of this a lack of infrastructure and it is hard to see the country moving beyond the subsistence stage anytime soon. With a coherent government strategy to address these issues it is possible that they could solve some of these problems. Unfortunately the government seems to have no real plan to fix the economy.

The most likely area for economic growth in Comoros is in the area of tourism. The country is located in the Indian Ocean and has a warm climate and lots of beaches. Potentially Comoros could market itself as a tourist destination. However for this to happen they will need to improve the infrastructure. They will need to build the necessary facilities like hotels and airports if they are to attract visitors. However with little foreign investment being made in the country this looks unlikely unless the government changes its policies and starts to make the country a more desirable destination for investment.