Sierra Leone economy: GDP, investment, trade and remittances
How large the Sierra Leone economy is and how fast it is growing, who invests in it, what it sells and buys, how much its citizens abroad send home, who it owes and what it holds in reserve. The latest published year is shown with each figure.
Sierra Leone economy snapshot: GDP, growth and income per person
Sierra Leone's GDP was US$7.5 billion in 2025, after real growth of 4.6%.
GDP
Current US dollars.
Real GDP growth
Annual change, per cent. Red bars are contractions.
GDP per person
Current US dollars.
Source: World Bank, 2025. Method
Who invests in Sierra Leone and in what
Direct investment by investing country
Nigeria was the largest investing country in Sierra Leone, at 34% of inward direct investment positions in 2024.
Inward direct investment positions in Sierra Leone at the end of 2024: the stock of foreign direct investment, not a year's new flow. The 10 largest investing countries.
The IMF data holds no positions reported by Sierra Leone itself. The figures are derived by the IMF from what the investing countries report, so they are shown as reported by investing countries.
Source: IMF, 2024. Method
What Sierra Leone sells and buys
Sierra Leone has not reported recent trade data to UN Comtrade. These figures are what 128 trading partners report about trade with Sierra Leone, shown as reported by trading partners. Partners' imports from Sierra Leone stand in for its exports and partners' exports to Sierra Leone for its imports. They are not Sierra Leone's own figures.
Ores, slag and ash was 72% of exports in 2024.
Sierra Leone sold the most to China, 62% of exports in 2024.
Exports by product, 2024
Tile area follows value. Each tile is a customs chapter of the Harmonized System; hover for the full name.
Source: UN Comtrade, 2024. Method
Top buyers, 2024
Share of Sierra Leone's exports.
Top suppliers, 2024
Share of Sierra Leone's imports.
Source: UN Comtrade, 2024. Method
What Sierra Leone buys, 2024
The 8 largest product chapters in imports.
Source: UN Comtrade, 2024. Method
Trade balance of goods
Exports minus imports. Red bars are years when imports were larger. A year is left out when either side is not published.
Source: UN Comtrade, 2024. Method
Remittances against foreign direct investment in Sierra Leone
Remittances to Sierra Leone were 2.6 times foreign direct investment in 2024.
Source: World Bank, 2026. Method
Remittances and investment as a share of GDP
The same two flows measured against the size of the economy.
Source: World Bank, 2026. Method
Who Sierra Leone owes
External debt stock by type of creditor. Creditor types cover public and publicly guaranteed debt; the grey part is the rest of the total external debt stock. A creditor type with no published figure is not shown.
Multilateral creditors held 40% of Sierra Leone's external debt stock in 2024.
Public external debt owed to China was US$58 million in 2024, 2% of the external debt stock.
Source: World Bank, 2026. Method
Reserves and months of import cover
Total reserves including gold, and how many months of imports they cover.
Source: World Bank, 2026. Method
Aid received by Sierra Leone
Net official development assistance and official aid received.
Source: World Bank, 2026. Method
More on Sierra Leone
World Bank data pages for Sierra Leone: GDP, GDP growth, GDP per person, remittances, foreign direct investment, reserves, months of imports, external debt, debt by creditor, aid. UN Comtrade: trade data. IMF: direct investment positions.