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.
National product:
GDP - exchange rate conversion - $1.4 billion (FY92 est.)
National product real growth rate:
-1% (FY92 est.)
National product per capita:
$330 (FY92 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
5% (1992)
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
revenues $68 million; expenditures $118 million, including capital
expenditures of $28 million (FY92 est.)
Exports:
$75 million (f.o.b., FY92 est.)
commodities:
rutile 50%, bauxite 17%, cocoa 11%, diamonds 3%, coffee 3%
partners:
US, UK, Belgium, Germany, other Western Europe
Imports:
$62 million (c.i.f., FY92 est.)
commodities:
capital goods 40%, food 32%, petroleum 12%, consumer goods 7%, light
industrial goods
partners:
US, EC countries, Japan, China, Nigeria
External debt:
$633 million (FY92 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate NA%
Electricity:
85,000 kW capacity; 185 million kWh produced, 45 kWh per capita (1991)
Industries:
mining (diamonds, bauxite, rutile), small-scale manufacturing (beverages,
textiles, cigarettes, footwear), petroleum refinery
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
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

*Sierra Leone, Economy

Currency:
1 leone (Le) = 100 cents
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)
Fisca