ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast collected 2.35 trillion CFA francs ($4.41 billion) in taxes in 2020, 4.4% more than the previous year, Abou Sie Ouattara, director general of the tax authority, said on Thursday.

Sie told reporters that tax revenues would have been even higher had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dampened business activity.

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, accounts for around 40% of the combined GDP of the eight-nation West African CFA franc currency zone.

It has been one of the zone's fastest-growing economies, expanding by an average of around 8% annually over the past decade.

But growth has slowed sharply due to the pandemic and the government warned last year that it would be difficult for it to meet its 2020 budget deficit target of 3% of GDP.