Sierra Leone: Sierra leone Economy Profile

Sierra Leone, is a country located at Western Africa, it has an area of 72,300 Km2, and it may be considered completely a small country. Sierra Leone, with a people of 6,205,382 people, it is one of the least populous country in the world ant it has a moderate people density, 86 people per km2.

The capital is Freetown and its currency is Leone

Sierra Leone is holding the 154 position by nominal GDP.Its national deficit in 2013 was 1,685 millions of dollars, ( 34.41% deficit-to-GDP ratio) and its public deficit per capita is 277$ dollars per inhabitant. In terms of the human development index (HDI) of Sierra Leone, which is the index used by the United Nations to measure the evolution of a country, was 0.374 points in 2013, leaving it in 182th place in the table of 186 nations published.

If the reason to visit Sierra Leone are business, you must know it's in the 140th of the Doing Business ranking , which provides objective measures of business regulations for local firms. Prior to the Ebola outbreak which started in May 2014, the authorities in Sierra Leone had made considerable evolution since the end of the civil conflict.

Ease of Doing Business in Sierra Leone

The outlook for the economy in the medium term, however, is unfavourable following the current EVD crisis. Preliminary analysis shows that economic increase has slowed down to 6.0% in 2014 compared to the original projection of 11.3%. GDP increase is projected to go as low as -2.5% in 2015 and the economy is projected to recover slightly reaching 2.8% in 2016. Inflation is revised upwards from 8.8% to 10% for 2014 and is projected at 9.4% and 8.3% for 2015 and 2016, respectively. The EVD crisis poses a great threat to macroeconomic stability, human development and poverty reduction.

Infrastructure deficiencies pose a critical threat to private-sector development although some evolution had been made in improving the business environment prior to the outbreak of EVD. Public deficit levels (domestic and external) remain sustainable but historically, public finances have been stressed as total revenue has consistently been lower than total spending. This has attendant implications on monetary policy and the external position, which had been improving prior to the EVD outbreak. Regarding regional integration, challenges remain in the free movement of people and capital across the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) nations but the situation had been improving in recent years until the advent of the emergency restrictions imposed in the wake of the EVD outbreak. Likewise, governance, gender, environment, and social indicators had been improving prior to the outbreak. Considerable effort needs to be exerted by government and development partners in implementing the emerging Post-Ebola Recovery Plan.

The spatial nexus in Sierra Leone is essentially rural/urban. The urban people has the lion’s share of services, assets and earned gain and is likely to bequeath additional to successor generations compared to the rural people. In 2010 the rural people was estimated to account for 62% of the in general people while urban was 38%. Freetown accounts for roughly 40% of the urban dwellers. There is no dedicated strategy for spatial inclusion in Sierra Leone but the essential elements of it are subsumed in the country’s medium-term plan, the Schedule for Prosperity (A4P 2013-2018).

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