(Ecofin Agency) - The Central Bank of DR Congo disclosed in data it recently published that the country produced over the first half of 2016, 466,250t of copper, representing a fall of 14%. The decrease in output was driven by the halting of processing activities at various copper mines across the country as a result of global drop in the prices of the commodity.

This is bad news for DRC’s economy which derives about 95% of its export revenues from mining. In June 2016, the government cut its budget by 22% due to low revenues associated with raw commodities.

Also, production of cobalt, for which the country is the leading producer worldwide, slumped by 13% to 35,267 tons during the semester.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is Africa’s largest copper producer. In 2015, copper output stood at 990,000t thus decreasing by 1.03 million tons compared to the year before.

Louis-Nino Kansoun