Congo Republic

Congo Republic stamps for sale at Io Collezionista. The former French colony is currently the fourth largest hydrocarbon producer in the Gulf of Guinea. Thanks to those deposits the country's economy grew considerably, at least until 2015, the year prices fell sharply. Against the income guaranteed by black gold, which is not evenly shared across the national territory, poverty and political instability remain problems that are always present and hard to resolve. Over the years President Denis Sassou Nguesso, in office from 1979 to 1992 and from 1997 to the present, has concentrated power in his own hands, obtaining through a constitutional referendum boycotted by the opposition over alleged fraud the authorisation to hold that high office for a third time.