Economic overview: Sierra Leone has substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources. However, the economic and social infrastructure is not well developed, and serious social disorders continue to push down production, exports, and the value of the leone. Agriculture employs about two-thirds of the working population, with subsistence agriculture dominating the sector. Manufacturing consists mainly of the processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market. The mining of diamonds, bauxite, and rutile is the major source of hard currency. The government has worked hard to meet its IMF- and World Bank-mandated stabilization targets, holding down fiscal deficits, and retiring much of its domestic debt - but at a steep cost in terms of forgone capital investments and social spending. Moreover, the economic infrastructure has nearly collapsed due to neglect and war-related disruptions in the mining and agricultural export sectors. The continuing civil war in Liberia has led to a large influx of refugees, who place additional burdens on Sierra Leone's fragile economy.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.4 billion (1994 est.)
GDP real growth rate: -4% (1994 est.)
GDP per capita: $960 (1994 est.)
GDP composition by sector: agriculture: 40% industry: 17% services: 43% (1994)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 24% (1994 est.)
Labor force: 1.369 million (1981 est.)
by occupation: agriculture 65%, industry 19%, services 16% (1981
est.)
note: only about 65,000 wage earners (1985)
Unemployment rate: NA%
Budget:
revenues: $75 million
expenditures: $128 million, including capital expenditures of $NA
(FY94/95 est.)
Industries: mining (diamonds, bauxite, rutile); small-scale manufacturing (beverages, textiles, cigarettes, footwear); petroleum refining