l
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

Industrial production growth rate: $NA

Electricity:
capacity: 130,000 kW
production: 220 million kWh
consumption per capita: 44 kWh (1993)

Agriculture: rice, coffee, cocoa, palm kernels, palm oil, peanuts;
poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs; fish catch was 65,000 metric tons in
1994

Exports: $115 million (f.o.b., 1994)
commodities: rutile 51%, bauxite 20%, diamonds 16%, coffee 6%, cocoa
7%, fish (1989)
partners: US, UK, Belgium, Germany, other Western Europe

Imports: $150 million (c.i.f., 1994)
commodities: foodstuffs 38%, machinery and equipment 44%, fuels and
lubricants 18% (1989)
partners: US, EU countries, Japan, China, Nigeria

External debt: $1.4 billion (yearend 1993)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $NA

Currency: