The economy of Sierra Leone is based on agriculture and mining. Some 67 % of the population is engaged in farming, fishing, or forestry. Much of the farming is of a subsistence nature. Plantation agriculture is remarkable only in the coastal region. Minerals are the nation’s principal export. In 1997 the national budget showed revenues of $87 million and expenditures of $146 million.

Private capital dominates mining concerns, commerce, and banking. European, Lebanese, and Indian interests are predominant, and participation by Sierra Leoneans is small. The public area features the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board (SLPMB), which has a monopoly on cash crops, and other public corporations, such as that of road transport, which is entirely owned by the government. Various inefficient parastatals were privatized in the 1980s. Government revenue is derived from direct and indirect taxes. In addition to import and export taxes, the government can also rely on company, excise, income, and mining taxes for revenue. The government's revenue from trade has been undermined by the growth of smuggling of diamonds and agricultural produce.

Sierra Leone is an extremely poor African nation with tremendous inequality in income distribution. It does have substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources. the economic and social infrastructure is not well developed, and serious social disorders continue to hamper economic development. About two-thirds of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing consists mainly of the processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market. Bauxite and rutile mines have been shut down by civil strife. The major source of hard currency is found in the mining of diamonds, the large majority of which are smuggled out of the nation. The resurgence of internal warfare in 1999 brought another substantial drop in GDP, with GNP recovering part of the way in 2000. The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad.