Annual Economic Review 2015 Government of Liberia
GOVERNMENT OF LIBERIA ANNUAL ECONOMIC REVIEW 2015 MINISTRY OF FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT PLANNING APRIL 2016 ANNUAL ECONOMIC REVIEW | 2015 FOREWORD Together as a nation, and with the help of our macroeconomic management and our firm development partners, we have charted a adherence to convergence criteria. path through the major hurdles of the last We also remain optimistic for 2016, two years, and toward our goal of building a anticipating a revival of major growth sectors, stable and sustainably developed economy, by 2030. In 2014, we united to fight the namely: agriculture, which we project to deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic, register a 1.4 percent real growth rate, which struck our society and caused a nearly against an estimated 1.0 percent contraction 5 percent setback in our projected 2014 GDP in 2015; mining, which signals some growth. In 2015, we saw the falling global improvement, while remaining below 1 prices of rubber and iron ore – our major percent; and manufacturing, which promises export commodities – slow the domestic a 5.2 percentage-point jump to 11.3 percent, mining and agriculture activities and from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2015. downgrade our real GDP growth projection Moreover, we expect improvement in the from 0.9 percent to 0.3 percent. services sector, especially in the hospitality and tourism sub-sectors, in view of the Yet, in the face of all these challenges, we eradication of EVD. maintained a single-digit inflation rate – closing 2015 at 8.0 percent – through In this fourth edition of its Annual Economic stronger collaboration with the Central Bank Review, or AER 15, the Ministry of Finance & of Liberia (CBL), our commitment to strong Development Planning (MFDP) highlights developments in the real, fiscal, monetary, and external sectors; and elaborates on the J MINISTRY OF FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT PLANNING i 2015 | ANNUAL ECONOMIC REVIEW Government’s efforts to address current Finally, the MFDP expresses its unchanging challenges, while advancing its development gratitude to President Johnson Sirleaf and Her agenda.
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