Sierra Leone's Economy & Society

This report offers a comprehensive overview of the situation in Sierra Leone focusing on the business perspective. 

• The country is one of the least developed countries in the world
• In terms of the real GDP, both in total numbers and per capita, the values were in the smaller end in the region, with slightly higher annual growth rates
• Population increased by 2.2%, which is slower than regional average, and amounted to  a little over 7.7 million inhabitants in 2018
• Sierra Leone had a fiscal deficit of -19.4% of GDP has been increasing over the past few years while unemployment rate was lower than in the general region at 4.5% and has been steady
• Household consumption expenditure in Sierra Leone was lower than in the region, but the amount of disposable income grew fastest between 2015 and 2016 at 17%
• It takes 11 days to start a business in Sierra Leone compared to 5.6 days in the U.S., which is relatively quick when considering the general state of development in the country
• There was a decline in the emergence of new businesses, which might be due to the relatively high levels of labor market and operational risks 
• Sierra Leone’s merchandise exports, consisting mainly of agricultural products, amounted to US$0.8 billion and commercial services exports to US$0.27 billion in 2017
• The export trade flow for commercial services was close to five times as high as in 2010
• After several years of decline in inward FDI, the investments amounted to $0.6 billion in 2017
• eCommerce revenues are expected grow by 11.2% annually to reach 26 million in 2023. With 12.3% of the population using the internet, there's still a lot of unlocked potential in the country for this market
• Sierra Leone is a semi-democracy and poses relatively high levels of political risks as rule of law and regulatory quality are low, control of corruption rather weak, and there's moderate risks from political instability and threat of violence or terrorism in global comparison

Introduction

• Russia-Ukraine war
• COVID-19
• Overview
• Doing business

• Economic conditions
• Labor force
• Business environment

• Trade in goods
• Investments

• Population
• Income
• Human Development Index

• Health infrastructure
• Health finance

• Consumer behavior
• eCommerce
• FinTech

• Digital

• CO2 emissions
• Particulate exposure

• Political profile
• Government quality

• Conflict and violence

Introduction

• Russia-Ukraine war in a nutshell
• Global economic impacts of war
• Russia and Ukraine in the global economy
• Country-specific impacts of war
• COVID-19 outbreak
• Fiscal policy in response to the pandemic
• Country overview
• Business culture

• Current GDP over time
• Current GDP per capita worldwide
• Value added by sector
• Inflation and central bank interest rates
• Expenditure in % of GDP
• Central government debt in country and region
• Net official development assistance received in country
• Impact of the pandemic on the working hours
• Total labor force over time and by gender
• Unemployment over time in country and in region
• Unemployment by gender
• Employment by sector
• Educational attainment of population
• Time to start a business
• Time to register property
• Time to fulfill tax requirements
• Time to resolve insolvency
• Time to export
• Time to import
• Efficiency of customs clearance

• Export flows of goods
• Import flows of goods
• Structure of export value of goods
• Structure of import value of goods
• Export flows of goods by sector
• Import flows of goods by sector
• Applied tariff for different products
• Inward/outward FDI values

• Population projection
• Population distribution
• Population growth, total population, and GDP per capita in region
• Total population worldwide
• Distribution of income over time
• Human Development Index

• Fertility rate and life expectancy
• Smoking prevalance, alcohol consumption, obesety
• Physicians and hospitals
• Hospital beds; basic sanitation
• Total healthcare spending, healthcare spending per capita
• Healthcare expenditure private and public sector, voluntary health insurance schemes

• Presence of international grocery chains
• Consumer spending by category and over time
• Digital expenditures as share of consumer spending per capita
• Total digital revenues
• eCommerce revenue growth, ARPU and eCommerce penetration
• eCommerce revenues by segment
• Products mostly bought online by gender
• FinTech transaction value by segment

• Internet penetration in country and region
• Mobile phone subscriptions per 1 inhabitants
• Fixed broadband subscriptions per 1 inhabitants
• Internet penetration worldwide

• Territorial CO2 emissions
• GDP per capita, CO2 emissions per capita
• Mean exposure to PM2.5 in micrograms by country
• Mean exposure to PM2.5 in micrograms by province/region over time
• Climate risk index

• Political profile
• Gender equality, Gay index, freedom of press, corruption index
• Efficiency of control of corruption
• Rule of law
• Regulatory quality

• Governance against political instability and threat of violence/terrorism
• Military expenses in USD
• Military expenses as % of GDP