Madagascar aims for 6.5 percent annual growth by 2019

Madagascar was able to secure 6.4 billion dollars at the Donor Conference in Paris, an amount that surpassed by far the initial target of 5.4 billion. And in his speech at the event on Thursday, Malagasy president said his country needs to achieve 6.5 percent growth to alleviate poverty.

Madagascar’s economy has been struggling since a 2009 coup scared off foreign investors. The country is one of the world’s poorest, despite rich deposits of minerals such as reserves of nickel, cobalt and uranium.

According to the World Bank, Madagascar’s population of 24 million people is growing at a rate of 2.8 percent annually.

In July, the IMF announced a package worth $304.7 million in financial assistance for the Indian Ocean island nation under a 40-month extended credit facility. The Fund also said it had trimmed the country’s economic growth forecast for 2015 to 3.1 percent.