Economy of Cape Verde Economy of Cape Verde Cape Verde is a small archipelagic nation that lacks resources and has experienced severe droughts. Agriculture is made difficult by lack of rain and is restricted to only four islands for most of the year. Most of the nation's GDP comes from the service industry. Cape Verde's economy has been steadily growing since the late 1990s, and it is now officially considered a country of average development, being only the second African country to have achieved such transition, after Botswana in 1994. Cape Verde has significant cooperation with Portugal at every level of the economy, which
Cape Verde–European Union relations African, whereas about 1% is of unmixed European descent. Because of this, Cape Verdeans find it hard to define themselves as either mixed or Africans. They regard themselves as either "both" or as "unique Cape Verdeans". Politically, Cape Verdeans also worked as part of the Portuguese administration, with independence leader Amílcar Cabral being part of the colonial administration in Guinea-Bissau and Angola. Cape Verde is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an African regional bloc with aims for internal integration similar to those of the EU, and even though it has not yet participated in