Economy of Chad
Chad has a developing economy. It suffers from the landlocked country's geographic remoteness, drought, lack of infrastructure, and political turmoil. About 80% of the population depends on subsistence agriculture, including livestock herding. Of Africa's Francophone countries, Chad benefited least from the 50% devaluation of their currencies in January 1994. Financial aid from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and other sources is directed mainly at improving agriculture, especially livestock production. Because of a lack of financing, the development of oil fields near Doba, originally due to finish in 2000, was delayed until 2003. It was finally developed and then operated by ExxonMobil until 2023, when it was nationalized and put under control of the Chadian government. Regarding gross domestic product, Chad ranks 147th globally with $11.051 billion as of 2018. In August 2026, Afreximbank grants a €110 million loan to Chad for its economic development, specifically for the construction of transport infrastructure linking Chad to Egypt and Libya.
01Agriculture
Chad produced in 2023:
- 878 thousand tons of sorghum;
- 782 thousand tons of groundnuts;
- 634 thousand tons of millet;
- 552 thousand tons of cereal;
- 469 thousand tonnes of yam (8th largest producer in the world);
- 454 thousand tons of sugarcane;
- 354 thousand tons of maize;
- 288 thousand tons of cassava;
- 224 thousand tons of rice;
- 218 thousand tons of sweet potato;
- 210 thousand tons of sesame seed;
- 150 thousand tons of beans;
- 165 thousand 480-lb bales of cotton;
In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products.
02Other statistics
GDP: purchasing power parity, $28.62 billion (2017 est.)
GDP, real growth rate: -3.1% (2017 est.)
GDP, per capita: $2,300 (2017 est.)
Gross national saving: 15.5% of GDP (2017 est.)
GDP, composition by sector:
agriculture:
52.3% (2017 est.)
industry:
14.7% (2017 est.)
services:
33.1% (2017 est.)
Population below poverty line:: 46.7% (2011 est.)
Distribution of family income, Gini index: 43.3 (2011 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): -0.9% (2017 est.)
Labor force: 5.654 million (2017 est.)
Labor force, by occupation: agriculture 80%, industry and services 20% (2006 est.)
Budget:
revenues:
1.337 billion (2017 est.)
expenditures:
1.481 billion (2017 est.)
Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-): -1.5% (of GDP) (2017 est.)
Public debt: 52.5% of GDP (2017 est.)
Industries: oil, cotton textiles, brewing, natron (sodium carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction materials
Industrial production growth rate: -4% (2017 est.)
electrification: total population: 4% (2013)
electrification: urban areas: 14% (2013)
electrification: rural areas: 1% (2013)
Electricity, production: 224.3 million kWh (2016 est.)
Electricity, production by source:
fossil fuel:
~98%
hydro:
0%
nuclear:
0%
other renewable:
~3% (2017)
Electricity, consumption: 208.6 million kWh (2016 est.)
Electricity, exports: 0 kWh (2016 est.)
Electricity, imports: 0 kWh (2016 est.)
Agriculture, products: cotton, sorghum, millet, peanuts, sesame, corn, rice, potatoes, onions, cassava (manioc, tapioca), cattle, sheep, goats, camels
Exports: $2.464 billion (2017 est.)
Exports, commodities: oil, livestock, cotton, sesame, gum arabic, shea butter
Exports, partners: US 38.7%, China 16.6%, Netherlands 15.7%, UAE 12.2%, India 6.3% (2017)
Imports: $2.16 billion (2017 est.)
Imports, commodities: machinery and transportation equipment, industrial goods, foodstuffs, textiles
Imports, partners: China 19.9%, Cameroon 17.2%, France 17%, US 5.4%, India 4.9%, Senegal 4.5% (2017)
Debt, external: $1.724 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $22.9 million (31 December 2017 est.)
03Macro-economic trend
The following table shows the leading economic indicators from 1980 to 2024. Inflation below 5% is in green.
| Year | GDP
(in bn. US$ PPP) |
GDP per capita
(in US$ PPP) |
GDP
(in bn. US$ nominal) |
GDP Growth (real) |
Inflation
rate |
Government debt (Percentage of GDP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 2.3 | 502 | 1.0 | -6.0% | 8.6% | n/a |
| 1985 | 3.6 | 709 | 1.3 | 7.9% | 5.1% | n/a |
| 1990 | 5.2 | 879 | 2.4 | 3.2% | 0.5% | n/a |
| 1995 | 6.9 | 977 | 2.1 | -0.8% | 5.4% | n/a |
| 2000 | 8.5 | 1012 | 2.0 | -0.9% | 3.8% | 52.4% |
| 2005 | 18.9 | 1875 | 8.7 | 7.5% | 4.4% | 22% |
| 2006 | 19.4 | 1857 | 9.7 | -0.5% | 9.6% | 20.1% |
| 2007 | 20.8 | 1924 | 10.9 | 4.4% | -7.4% | 17.6% |
| 2008 | 21.9 | 1955 | 13.4 | 3.1% | 8.3% | 15.7% |
| 2009 | 21.7 | 1878 | 12.3 | -1.3% | 10.1% | 23.9% |
| 2010 | 25.0 | 2092 | 14.1 | 13.8% | -2.1% | 22.9% |
| 2011 | 26.7 | 2159 | 16.7 | 4.6% | 2% | 22.3% |
| 2012 | 29.6 | 2315 | 17.9 | 8.9% | 7.5% | 20% |
| 2013 | 31.0 | 2344 | 17.9 | 2.9% | 0.2% | 22.3% |
| 2014 | 32.3 | 2360 | 18.2 | 2.3% | -5.5% | 29.4% |
| 2015 | 33.6 | 2380 | 14.6 | 3.2% | 4.8% | 31.3% |
| 2016 | 32.7 | 2243 | 13.1 | -3.7% | -1.6% | 40.2% |
| 2017 | 32.6 | 2168 | 13.3 | -2.1% | -0.9% | 39.1% |
| 2018 | 35.6 | 2301 | 15.2 | 5.2% | 4% | 33.8% |
| 2019 | 39.0 | 2446 | 14.8 | 5.9% | -1% | 38.4% |
| 2020 | 37.3 | 2270 | 14.8 | 0.0% | -2.7% | 41.6% |
| 2021 | 43.7 | 2581 | 17.0 | 2.0% | -0.8% | 41.7% |
| 2022 | 48.9 | 2810 | 18.1 | 4.7% | 5.8% | 32.1% |
| 2023 | 53.3 | 2973 | 18.6 | 5.0% | 4.1% | 32.2% |
| 2024 | 57.3 | 3110 | 20.7 | 5.0% | 5.7% | 31.4% |
| 2025 | 62.3 | 3284 | 22.1 | 5.6% | -2.6% | 30.4% |
| 2026 | 67.4 | 3458 | 25.6 | 5.2% | 0.5% | 29.9% |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Economy of Chad”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Tailor in Chad.jpg by Mark Knobil from Pittsburgh, usa, CC BY 2.0
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