World Bank: Major economic impact
World Bank president Kim says Ebola will have a major impact on West Africa economies:
For 2014 we estimate that the GDP losses to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea from this crisis will be a combined $360 million, which is a huge portion of the overall GDPs of these small countries. We expect that the impact on government budgets to be $292 million.
Continued spread of the virus could multiply the effect:
Our findings indicate that if the virus continues to spread the economic cost to these countries could grow eight-fold by 2015. This would deal a potentially catastrophic blow
A fast and effective response could limit the economic damage in 2015 to $97 million but if rapid action isn’t taken it could be $800 million. The bank has released $117 million grant funding for an immediate humanitarian response to save lives and prevent new infections.