As an employee of a company that is considering investing in a foreign economy, you have been asked to research a country and make a presentation to your colleagues about an area of economic concern...

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    I. Sierra Leone: an overview
    3
    II. Potential of investment in Sierra Leone
    3
    III. GDP growth trend in Sierra Leone
    4
    IV. Relationship with GDP and unemployment
    6
    V. Relationship between GDP and inflation
    7
    VI. Conclusion
    9
    VII. References
    10
Table of Contents
I. Sierra Leone: an overview
Sierra Leone is a small poor country in West Africa that has experienced eleven years long civil war. It is considered as one of the poorest countries in the world. Long civil war and huge outbreak of Ebola were the two key challenges that had crippled the economy to a significant extent. It is extremely poor country where almost half of the population lev on subsistence agriculture. The world Bank and many other international organizations are closely working to support the country in fighting poverty and to spur economic growth. The country is rich with high quality minerals, agriculture and fishery resources. The worst ever outbreak of Ebola during 2014-2016 combined with fall in world commodity price have depressed the economic growth.
The key objective of this report is to gain a deep insight on the potential opportunities as well as challenges in investing one of the poorest countries in Africa, Sierra Leone.
II. Potential of investment in Sierra Leone:
With a population of more than seven million people and English as their official language along with abundance of mineral resources, Sierra Leone presents ample of investment opportunities to the international investors. Mineral resources are the key driver of Sierra Leone’s economic growth. The country has rich deposit of several minerals that includes diamond, bauxite, rutile and iron ore. Mining, energy and infrastructure are tree major sectors that attracts foreign direct investment.
Evaluating the country risk while investing in foreign country, it is important to assess the political economic and business environment that is specific for each country. As far the ease of doing business in Sierra Leone is concerned, it presents some key challenges to the investors. The country ranks only 160 out of 190 countries in the ease of doing business ranking. The foreign investors usually face huge concern on getting the construction permit, electricity access, property reiteration, getting loan for small business and above all resolving insolvency. Corruption is a huge of issue of concern in Sierra Leone.
III. GDP growth trend in Sierra Leone:
GDP is one of the key economic concern and major macroeconomic indicator that provides clear indication about the economic performance of the economy. GDP growth rate does not reflect the economic well-being of an economy, it also has integral relation with many other macroeconomic variables. In order to have short term and medium-term future economic outlook we have to analyse the trends of GDP growth rate data and corresponding many other variables. The GDP growth rate data for Sierra Leone is collected for last ten years (2010-2019)
    Country Name
    Sierra Leone
    Country Code
    SLE
    Series Name
    GDP growth (annual %)
    Series Code
    NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG
    2010
    5.346466
    2011
    6.315045
    2012
    15.18177
    2013
    20.71577
    2014
    4.556772
    2015
    -20.5988
    2016
    6.055474
    2017
    4.211183
    2018
    3.446163
The data published by The World Bank and the above graph has shown that the economy has reached to the peak...