Ebola Ravages Economies in West Africa

NEW YORK TIMES  by  JEFFREY GETTLEMAN                  Dec. 21, 2014     
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone--The "personal hospitality business" may be the most obvious sector of Sierra Leone’s economy that has been decimated by Ebola. After all, the main slogan in Freetown, the capital, these days is A.B.C. — avoid body contact.Residents in Freetown, Sierra Leone, break rocks in a road project that was halted because of concern about Ebola. In Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, Ebola continues to lay waste not just to immune systems but also to balance sheets. Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

But all across the most affected nations — Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia — Ebola continues to lay waste not just to immune systems but also to balance sheets.

Tourism, agriculture, road construction, arts and crafts, diesel sales, tax collections, and just about every other slice of the economy, legal or not, are significantly down, costing billions of dollars in lost business and spelling years of increased hardship for an already impoverished region.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/world/africa/ebola-ravages-economies-in-west-africa.html?_r=0