LE CAPITAL

The beginning of this year has seen a number of African countries planning to raise financing from the sovereign debt market. Ivory Coast, Rwanda and Angola have planned debt raising in February this year. I took the opportunity to look at Congo’s attractiveness to these very inventors. Ivory coast’s economy has many similarities with DR Congo’s: Similar GDP sizes averaging USD 31 Bn, growth rates at 8%, inflation rates around than 3%, budget deficit at 2 to 3% and, interestingly enough, similar sovereign ratings with S&P’s B- for Congo and B for Ivory Coast. So why has the later been able to oversell two sovereign bonds in less than a year while DRC fails to appeal even to the most yield starved investors?  Would i lend a penny to DRC ? S&P  gave us gross indications citing weak institutions, continuing conflict, poor governance, extremely low-income levels (70% of the population lives under poverty line ),  heavy dependence on external financing and very