Ebola to slash growth: IMF

Ebola to slash growth: IMF

12-09-2014

A man washes his hands as a precaution against Ebola in a facility in Abuja in Nigeria. Reuters: file photo Economic growth in Liberia and Sierra Leone could decline by almost 3.5 percentage points as the world's worst outbreak of Ebola has crippled mining, agriculture and services sectors in the two West African states, the IMF said on Thursday.Growth in Guinea, where industrial mining has been unaffected so far, could fall by more than 1 percentage point, said Bill Murray, spokesman at the International Monetary Fund. "Particularly in the cases of Sierra Leone and Liberia, the largest sectors of these already fragile economies ... are being affected," Murray said. "This is in turn engendering significant financing gaps for the fiscal and external accounts of these two countries, and triggering higher inflation." He said the crisis had exposed financing gaps totaling US$100 million to US$130 million in each of the three countries, and that the IMF was working with authorities to figure out additional funding. All three countries are already getting IMF loans under programs that predate the Ebola outbreak. The IMF said economic growth in Sierra Leona was likely to fall to 8 percent from 11.3 percent this year, Liberia's growth might decline to 2.5 percent from 5.9 percent, and in Guinea, economic output could fall to 2.4 percent from 3.5 percent.

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