The financial damage caused by the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has already killed around three thousand people, is on track to set record losses.
“The most comprehensive estimate that I’ve seen was from the World Bank and they’ve estimated that it’s been between $2.2 and $7.4 bln just for 2014, and that could increase to an additional $1.6 or even 25.2 bln through 2015,” Chris Pardee, Manager of Health Intelligence at iJET International said.
The bulk of uncertainty applies to people’s unpredictable emotions, as fear, or what economists call aversion behavior, deals the strongest blow to the tiny nation’s economy, spreading economic pain beyond the direct cost of treating the virus.
But let’s take pure facts. As of early November, nearly half of those working in Liberia were no longer working, says the most recent round of mobile phone surveys conducted by the World Bank Group, the Liberian Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services and the Gallup Organization. Those engaged in self-employment activities have been the hardest hit. Only about 36 percent of previously self-employed workers outside of agriculture and about half of those originally engaged in wage labor were still working since the crisis unfolded. In October only, Liberia saw a 40 percent spike in imported rice prices. Nevertheless, over 70 percent of respondents said that regardless of price, they did not have enough money to afford food.
“The report actually focuses on Liberia, but I think this is true for all three of the affected countries. What we’ve seen is kind of a general slowdown – people aren’t working, there’re travel restrictions, goods and services can’t be provided, things can’t move,” Kristen Himelein, Senior Economist at the World Bank Group and the report’s author said.
The most recent data from World Bank Group says that the two-year regional financial impact is about to reach $32.6 bln by the end of next year, in case the killer virus continues to surge in the three worst-affected states and spreads to neighboring regions. But it only remains to be seen whether one of the deadliest viruses known to man is going to be one of the most high priced as well.
