How Ebola Affects Economies?

3000 people died because of Ebola in West Africa from January to now. Despite the fact that, this is a disease,World Bank announced cost of Ebola it has enormous negative effects on economy. The countries who Ebola stole most life is the countries which was economically growing rapidly. Yet, Ebola affects this growth negatively and causes a lot of economical problems.

In this article, I will try to share with you the economic side of Ebola crisis.

 According to reports,-like most of the African countries- in West African countries GDP mostly contributed by Agriculture. (Sierra Lone %57, Liberia %39 and Guinea %20) And because of the Ebola viruses, agricultural industry just stopped because even going from one district to another is forbidden. Therefore, these countries just lost the very important part of their GDP. I'm even not saying about food shortages.

But this is unfortunately just the one side of the damage. For Sierra Lone, Liberia and Guinea foreign direct investment has unbelievable importance. Because of  closed borders and growing bad-reputation, foreign investment (mostly Western) will go-away from the country.

No, this is not enough. Let's talk about mining industry. Specially for Liberia, Mining industry has big percent in GDP portion. But, productions are going down day by day and with this rate authorities say that in 2015, it is going to stop.

Another big problem is, As I mentioned above borders closed. For this countries, local trade is so important if we consider they do not have big business channels. However, because of closed borders, the trade revenues fall %90 percent.

Of course, These West African countries, will not suffer from Ebola until the Doomsday. World Health Organization or some scientists will find solution to this crisis. In that point, these countries have to fight against the physchological damaged after Ebola. They have to prove the world, like Japan proved in SARS case, they recovered from the Ebola. Even though, in Nigeria just 2 people died because of Ebola investment rate just fall %20. This is basically can explain like that; West got scared and stopped the serious investments to Africa.

In conclusion, the real fight against the ebola's economical effects will start after the cure of the illness. West African Countries have to start recovering economy by foreign investment. We are all sure that, investors got scared. In long-term, these countries have to gain their investors back and start producing like before. I strongly believe that with the help of the West, these countries will gain their old rapidly growing economy.