Loucoumane Coulibaly | ABIDJAN

Ivory Coast will trim its 2017 budget spending by around 50 billion CFA francs ($84 million), a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday, less than the 200 billion CFA francs ($335 million) of cuts announced by President Alassane Ouattara last month.

Ouattara said last month that a sharp drop in global prices for cocoa, a major export from the West African country, meant spending plans would have to be scaled back sharply.

Government spokeswoman Anne Ouloto did not immediately give an explanation for the latest budget revision.

“Economic growth for 2017 was revised to 8.5 percent from 8.9 percent,” she added.

($1 = 597.4800 CFA francs)

(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Emma Farge; editing by John Stonestreet)