Ebola hits West African economies hard

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – the worst-hit countries by the Ebola virus – now have more to worry about, as the Ebola epidemic has launched an attack on the  growth of their economies.

According to a macro research conducted by Standard Chartered Bank, there will be 2-5 per cent output reductions in the three West African nations.

“Even African countries where there are no Ebola cases are experiencing economic effects, owing to visa, travel and border restrictions on citizens of countries where Ebola has been found,” Standard Chartered noted.

This revelation came at the heels of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declaration which  reversed the economic growth predictions of the three African countries.

IMF spokesperson, William Murray, on Thursday said economic growth of Liberia had been cut back from 5.9 per cent to 2.5 per cent, Sierra Leone from 11.3 per cent to 8 per cent and Guinea from 3.5 per cent to 2.4 per cent.

Those countries each need as much as $130m in fiscal and balance of payment support, and the IMF is exploring ways it can help, Murray said.

In validation of the IMF’s assertion, Liberia’s finance minister, Amara Konneh, also declared on Thursday that the country’s economy had entered a recession because of the deadly Ebola virus disease.

The government now needs to curb spending, Konneh said.

Of the three most-affected countries, Liberia has been the worst hit by the Ebola outbreak.

So far, the country has recorded about 1,224 deaths since the outbreak in February 2014.