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- <text>
- <title>
- Sierra Leone: Economy
- </title>
- <article><hdr>The World Factbook 1993: Sierra Leone
- Economy</hdr><body>
- <p>Overview: The economic and social infrastructure is not well
- developed. Subsistence agriculture dominates the economy,
- generating about one-third of GDP and employing about two-thirds
- of the working population. Manufacturing, which accounts for
- roughly 10% of GDP, consists mainly of the processing of raw
- materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market.
- Diamond mining provides an important source of hard currency.
- The economy suffers from high unemployment, rising inflation,
- large trade deficits, and a growing dependency on foreign
- assistance. The government in 1990 was attempting to get the
- budget deficit under control and, in general, to bring economic
- policy in line with the recommendations of the IMF and the World
- Bank. Since March 1991, however, military incursions by Liberian
- rebels in southern and eastern Sierra Leone have severely
- strained the economy and have undermined efforts to institute
- economic reforms.
- </p>
- <p>National product: GDP - exchange rate conversion - $1.4
- billion (FY92 est.)
- </p>
- <p>National product real growth rate: -1% (FY92 est.)
- </p>
- <p>National product per capita: $330 (FY92 est.)
- </p>
- <p>Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5% (1992)
- </p>
- <p>Unemployment rate: NA%
- </p>
- <p>Budget: revenues $68 million; expenditures $118 million,
- including capital expenditures of $28 million (FY92 est.)
- </p>
- <list>
- <l>Exports: $75 million (f.o.b., FY92 est.)</l>
- <l> commodities: rutile 50%, bauxite 17%, cocoa 11%, diamonds
- 3%, coffee 3%</l>
- <l> partners: US, UK, Belgium, Germany, other Western
- Europe</l>
- <l>Imports: $62 million (c.i.f., FY92 est.)</l>
- <l> commodities: capital goods 40%, food 32%, petroleum 12%,
- consumer goods 7%, light industrial goods</l>
- <l> partners: US, EC countries, Japan, China, Nigeria</l>
- </list>
- <p>External debt: $633 million (FY92 est.)
- </p>
- <p>Industrial production: growth rate NA%
- </p>
- <p>Electricity: 85,000 kW capacity; 185 million kWh produced, 45
- kWh per capita (1991)
- </p>
- <p>Industries: mining (diamonds, bauxite, rutile), small-scale
- manufacturing (beverages, textiles, cigarettes, footwear),
- petroleum refinery
- </p>
- <p>Agriculture: accounts for over 30% of GDP and two-thirds of
- the labor force; largely subsistence farming; cash crops -
- coffee, cocoa, palm kernels; harvests of food staple rice meets
- 80% of domestic needs; annual fish catch averages 53,000 metric
- tons
- </p>
- <p>Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $161
- million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral
- commitments (1970-89), $848 million; OPEC bilateral aid
- (1979-89), $18 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $101
- million
- </p>
- <p>Currency: 1 leone (Le)=100 cents
- </p>
- <p>Exchange rates: leones (Le) per US$1 - 552.43 (January 1993),
- 499.44 (1992), 295.34 (1991), 144.9275 (1990), 58.1395 (1989),
- 31.2500 (1988)
- </p>
- <p>Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June
- </p></body></article></text>
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