Economic impact of Ebola

The economic impact of the Ebola outbreak in Africa may be dramatically less severe than originally believed, the World Bank said on Wednesday, but some of the hardest hit areas are still grappling with strict quarantine measures that stifle business.

Effective containment caused the World Bank to lower its damage forecasts, saying the cost of the epidemic on sub-Saharan economies would likely be closer to $3-$4 billion (2.4-3.2 billion euros) as opposed to a worst case scenario of $32 billion.

"The risk of the highest case of economic impact of Ebola has been reduced because of the success of containment in some countries," said Francisco Ferreira, the bank's lead economist for Africa.

Tourism in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the region's biggest industries, has also fallen sharply as travelers even avoid countries where there were no reported cases of the deadly disease, such as Kenya and South Africa.

But while the overall damage may have been mitigated, many merchants and laborers in the outbreak's epicenter in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, still face travel restrictions that are preventing them from selling their wares abroad.

"The trauma is still there and business is difficult," Mohamed Basma, a diamond trader in Sierra Leone, told the AFP news agency.

Basma said authorities in his town of Kenema were preventing anyone from harvesting diamonds in the country's flood plains.

Numerous checkpoints between Kenema and the capital, Freetown, were also taking a toll on the country's exporters.

"Our problem is transportation," Bassam Ayoub, the proprietor of a trading company, told AFP, adding that his drivers needed up to two days to travel the 350 kilometers to Freetown.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone remained "intense and widespread," putting the number of new confirmed cases in the week until Nov. 16 at 533.

cjc/sri (AFP, Reuters)