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Guinea: Economic Outline

Economic Indicators

In spite of its considerable economic potential, Guinea has to face a double challenge: to accomplish the improvement of its battered economy and to attenuate the political and ethnic divisions aggravated by the presidential elections at the end of 2010 which allowed the country to have its first democratically elected president, Alpha Conde.

After several blunders in trying to establish economic reforms and to control a domestic socio-political crisis, the country seems to be reaching a normal situation. Its growth in 2011 was 4%, with a consolidation estimated in 5.5% for 2012. In November 2011, the IMF gave its agreement to grant a loan which will be settled in 2012. The IMF considers that the new government knows how to take important measures to stabilize its budgetary situation, to tighten its monetary policy and control the rhythm of its inflation. The improvement in public finance management, the reforms on the financial system and the social sector support are some of the measures that will probably allow Guinea to obtain a reduction of its debt of USD 3 billion under the framework of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). The government has also adopted, in August 2011, a new mining code introducing new taxes and allocating a share of the mining revenues to local activities, the country is one of the first global exporter of bauxite and one of the largest producer of iron ore, gold and diamonds.

However, despite this economic relaunch, the country remains very poor where the real income per capita declines almost 1% every year and almost 70% of the population lives on less than USD 1 per day and inequalities are strongly marked. The well-being, educational and health indicators are often below the regional average. The situation regarding human rights has also taken a sharp setback in 2011 according the National Council for Organizations of Civil Society in Guinea. In the framework of the future legislative elections scheduled during the first semester of 2012, the political parties will experience a lack of freedom of expression.

 

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Indicator of Economic Freedom

Score:

51.7/100

Position:

Mostly unfree

World Rank:

133/179

Regional Rank:

28/45

Distribution of Economic freedom in the world
Source: 2011 Index of Economic freedom, Heritage Foundation

Note: The Economic freedom index measure ten components of economic freedom, grouped into four broad categories or pillars of economic freedom: Rule of Law (property rights, freedom from corruption); Limited Government (fiscal freedom, government spending); Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom); and Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom). Each of the freedoms within these four broad categories is individually scored on a scale of 0 to 100. A country’s overall economic freedom score is a simple average of its scores on the 10 individual freedoms.

 

Country Risk

See the Country Risk Analysis Provided By Ducroire.

 

Indicator of Political Freedom

Ranking:

Not Free

Political Freedom:

7/7

Civil Liberties:

6/7

Map of freedom 2010
Source: Freedom House

Note: The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

 

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

World Rank:

86/179

Evolution:

27 places up compared to 2010

Source: Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2011, Reporters Without Borders

Note: The world rankings, published annually, measures the violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position is assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire sent to partner organizations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and activists of human rights, including the main criteria - 44 in total - to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

Sources of General Economic Information

Main Online Newspapers and Portals

Allafrica, Guinea News
Afrol, News-Guinea
Guinea Newspapers and News Media Guide
BBC Country Profile, Guinea

Useful Resources

The Ministry of the economy, finance and planning
Bank of Central African States

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Last Updates: May 2012