The country’s economy is highly dominated by the rural and mining sectors. GNP per capita was US$ 410 in 2007. Guinea has succeeded in obtaining a new formal programme from the IMF after a long lean spell. The Central Bank’s performance in controlling inflation, replenishing foreign exchange reserves, and ensuring compliance with the other IMF criteria were determining factors.   

Development Policy

The diagnosis of priority cross-cutting issues carried out by the Guinean Government revealed that one of the major causes of the uneven distribution of incomes lay in weaknesses observed in governance, in particular corruption, highly perceptible in the administrative, judicial and political systems, which increases the transaction costs of economic operators while heightening the risks incurred by private investors.  All the actors and development partners are of the opinion that the weaknesses in governance will continue to be a major handicap to Guinea’s development.

Bank Group Strategy

Over the 2005-2009 period, the Bank’s operations in Guinea will be focused on the following two pillars:

• strengthening of basic infrastructure and the growth-oriented sectors; and
• the improvement of basic social services.  The two pillars of the strategy are consistent with the priorities of both the Government and the Bank. 

The strategy addresses Guinea’s major concerns. Under its support to NEPAD, the Bank will step up its interventions in multinational projects which could benefit Guinea.  The Bank group will pay particular attention to monitoring the weaknesses identified in Guinea’s last performance evaluation. These concerned:

• governance;
• macroeconomic management, especially regarding public finance and debt management, and
• portfolio management and monitoring.

In light of these weaknesses identified by the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) and the portfolio performance, a number of measures are planned under the CSP, the implementation of which will improve Guinea’s overall performance. The implementation outcomes of the PRSP have been average, and the country is experiencing a very difficult situation as a result of poor performance at several levels, especially with regard to government finance. In the past, this situation had led to the accumulation of external arrears owed to its development partners, including the Bank.