Commodities Slump, Ebola Put Liberia’s Institutional Capacities to the Test

Commodities Slump, Ebola Put Liberia’s Institutional Capacities to the Test
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf during an interview, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 22, 2015 (AP photo by Kamran Jebreili).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the impact of falling oil and commodities prices on resource-exporting countries.

In late January, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced that the government would cut budgetary spending by 11 percent, due to a drop in mining revenues caused by the collapse of global commodities prices. In an email interview, Gonne Beekman, a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen UR, discusses the impact of the commodities bust on Liberia.

WPR: How important are commodities for Liberia’s economy, and what effect have falling commodities prices had on public spending and, by consequence, political stability?

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