Economy of Guinea

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The Guinean economy is still damaged by the mismanagement of Sékou Touré , which lasted until the 1980s. It brought the infrastructure to a standstill , and most of the operations in Guinea were state-owned. In 1984 a market-oriented exchange rate system began to be established and all state-owned enterprises were either privatized or dissolved. The result was strong growth in the construction industry and increasing activity by small businesses. From 2000, however, the government began to prevent further reforms, which primarily resulted in an increase in corruption ( Transparency International2010: ranked 164 out of 178). The investment climate is correspondingly poor (number 179 out of 183 countries according to a World Bank study). Economic growth was 3.3% in 2005 and decreased to 1.5% in 2007, but increased again by 2011. During the same period, inflation was reduced from over 30% (2006) to around 16% (2011). The gross domestic product in 2007 was USD 4.564 billion. However, the information about it fluctuates very strongly, depending on whether it is calculated according to real purchasing power or the official exchange rate.

Basic data

Some economic indicators of Guinea:

  • Share of economic sectors in the total economy (2011):
    • Agriculture: 17%, although 76% of the active population was employed there
    • Industry including mining: 53%
    • Services: 30%
  • Gross National Product per capita: $ 1,100 (2011)
  • Average Annual income per inhabitant: 190 euros per year
  • Inflation: 34.7% in 2006 (IMF), 16% in 2011, 9.8% in 2018
  • Exports: $ 1.78 billion (2007)
  • Imports: $ 1.77 billion (2007)
  • External debt: 3.3 billion (2007); $ 1.4 billion (2018)
  • The economy grew by 2.2% (IMF) in 2006, 4% in 2011 and 10.8% in 2016. In the years 1992–2002 it was an average of 4.3% per year. After the Ebola epidemic and thanks to the bauxite boom, growth averaged 8.1% from 2016 to 2019.

Agriculture

Bananas from Guinea.
Traditional rice harvest

In spite of the good natural conditions, agriculture is unproductive: mostly small family businesses work with traditional farming methods. Slash and burn is also still widespread. Less than 5% of the land is built on. The food production is insufficient for their own consumption.

The main food is rice . Although rice production doubled within ten years by 2004, a lot of rice has to be imported. Other important staple foods are cassava , fonio millet , sweet potatoes , peanuts and corn .

Important agricultural products that are exported are coffee , palm oil , bananas , pineapples , cocoa and cotton . Food exports only make up about 2% of Guinea's exports.

Meat production is also insufficient for their own use. The fishing , however, is becoming increasingly important and now reached levels of up to 100,000 tons per year.

Mining

Few African countries have as many natural resources as Guinea. They generate around 85% (2004) of the country's export earnings.

  • Bauxite : Guinea's high-quality bauxite reserves are estimated at around 7.4 billion tons, which is a substantial part of the world’s reserves. About two billion tons of this have been proven. The world's largest bauxite mine is located northeast of Boké . The mined bauxite, the 18 million tons, which brought in 596.8 million US dollars in 2010, is exported and only in Russia (20%), Spain (20%), Ireland (15%), Ukraine (13 %), USA (11%), Germany (10%), Canada (6%), France (2%), Azerbaijan (1%), Cameroon (1%) and Italy (1%) processed into aluminum. Since 1963, the semi-public Compagnie des bauxites de Guinée (CBG), which 51% belongs to the American Harvey Aluminum Company HALCO, the American mining company Alcoa , the Australian-British company Rio Tinto Group and the DadcoAlumina company have been involved in the mining of bauxite, which is legally up to is secured in 2038. The Chinese company SmB Winning Group , a consortium controlled by the China Hongqiao Group , announced in 2018 that it would also smelt bauxite in Guinea. From 2015 onwards, affected people began to resist in order to claim their violated rights. The Russian company Rusal has been mining around 3.2 million tons of bauxite per year southwest of Kindia since 2001 . In 2018 it was able to open a second bauxite mine with around 564 million tons of resources in Dian-Dian, northeast of Boké, so that 27% of Rusal's bauxite production comes from Guinea. Guinea's bauxite production stagnated from 2010 to 2015 and amounted to around 18 million tons per year. After that, thanks to great demand on the world market, it rose sharply to 82 million tons by 2019.
  • Diamonds : The diamond deposits are estimated at a few hundred million carats, of which around 30 million have been proven. They are mainly located in Forest Guinea and are mined by both small companies and large industrial companies such as De Beers .
  • Iron ore : Guinea has large deposits of iron ore. In the Simandou Mountains in the east of the country is the largest iron ore deposit in the world of 2.25 billion tons on an area of ​​1,500 km², which was discovered in 1996. The iron content is around 62%. The Guinean government successively sold the mining rights to various foreign investors, on the condition that they build a 650 km long railway line for development and a deep water port for loading the iron ore, which would cost a total of around 20 billion dollars. Due to corruption, mismanagement, the Ebola crisis and the low steel price, the project has not yet been implemented. The mining rights have been held by the Chinese company Chinalco since 2014.
  • Gold : Gold from Guinea was valued in London in the 17th century and coins were minted from it. These were called "Guineas" . Between 1929 and 1958, the colonial power France officially obtained 1 million ounces of gold from Guinea.
  • Uranium : In August 2008, the government announced significant uranium deposits near Firawa in the south of the country.

Industry and energy

Souapiti dam near Kaléta shortly before completion in 2020

Industrial production grows annually by 7–8%.

With around 840 million kWh, electricity production roughly covers its own needs. In 2015, the expanded river power plant on the Konkouré in Kaléta with an output of 240 MW was put into operation after a 146-kilometer power line had been built towards the coast, which had improved the power supply in the capital region of Conakry . Since then, the Souapiti dam has been under construction, which will dam a lake of 23 million cubic meters and produce 450 MW of power. The projects are valued at 546 million US dollars and are being carried out by China International Water-Electric, which has a 75% stake in the power plants.

Foreign trade

The most important export partners in 2011 were: Chile 24.6%, Spain 9.2%, Russia 7.5%, India 5.2%, Germany 5.2%, Ireland 5.1%, USA 5.0% and the Ukraine with 4.4%. The most important export products are bauxite, aluminum, gold, diamonds, coffee, fish and agricultural products. In 2011, goods worth $ 1.433 billion were exported.

The most important import partners in 2011 were: China 13.2%, the Netherlands 8.1% and the USA with 5.4%. The most important import goods are petroleum products, metals, machines, means of transport, textiles, grain and other foods. In 2011, it imported goods worth $ 2.106 billion.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ guinee.gov.gn ( Memento from November 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ ipicture.de accessed on October 22, 2012
  3. ↑ Compact economic data Guinea , November 2019, website gtai.de ​​(Germany Trade & Invest)
  4. ↑ Reserves of bauxite in selected countries in 2019, website de.statista.com
  5. ↑ https://www.mindat.org/loc-20894.html
  6. ↑ Bob Barry: Who Owns Guinea's Bauxite? December 26, 2012, website dw.com
  7. ^ Ruth Maclean: Russians have special status: politics and mining mix in Guinea. Activist alleges Russian mining companies are given advantages in country that gets third of its revenues from the sector , The Guardian, August 27, 2019
  8. ↑ Rusal starts shipping bauxite from Guinea's Dian-Dian mine , Reuters, June 19, 2018
  9. ^ Benjamin Moscovici: Poor, rich Guinea. Deutschlandfunk, July 6, 2019 (radio feature about the political situation)
  10. ↑ Bauxite Mines on the Sangaredi Plateau & Kamsar port installations, Involving the multinationals Alcoa, Rio Tinto and Dadco, Guinea , Environmental Justice Atlas, March 19, 2019
  11. ↑ M. Hohmann: Mine production of bauxite in Guinea 2009 to 2019 , February 10, 2020, website de.statista.com
  12. ↑ Fabian Urech: The largest iron ore treasure in the world slumbers in a chain of hills in Guinea. Many wanted to raise it, all of them failed. A report in: NZZ , March 8, 2018.
  13. ↑ Christoph Jehle: Simandou - a prime example of mismanagement in Africa. heise.de, April 22, 2018, accessed on April 22, 2018 .
  14. ^ Bate Felix: Rio says reaches accord with Guinea over Simandou. In: reuters.com. April 22, 2011, accessed April 22, 2018 .
  15. ^ Simandou Iron Ore Project - Mining Technology. In: mining-technology.com. Accessed April 22, 2018 .
  16. ^ Jon Yeomans: Inside Simandou: The mining project that has cursed all who come near it. In: telegraph.co.uk. June 5, 2017, accessed April 22, 2018 .
  17. ↑ https://www.jeuneafrique.com/9253/economie/guin-e-les-10-tapes-du-mont-simandou/ Guinée: les grandes étapes du mont Simandou , Jeune Afrique, June 12, 2014
  18. ↑ BBC NEWS. news.bbc.co.uk, August 10, 2008, accessed April 22, 2018 .
  19. ↑ erwaertiges-amt.de
  20. ↑ Moustapha Keita: Guinea: New hydropower plant to reduce electricity deficit - China finances 75 percent , afrika.info, May 2, 2012
  21. ↑ New mega-dam cares for residents in Guinea on YouTube , April 1, 2015
  22. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Guinea