Liberia Research Paper

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DEVELOPING COUNTRY ESSAY - LIBERIA

Liberia is a nation that’s was established in 1822 and is located in West Africa. Liberia has an area of approximately 111, 000 square meters and a population of four million residents. It is the home to over nine various ethnic groups with a number of different spoken languages. Liberia is a nation that is strongly affected by poverty and experiences a number of issues due to its financial status. The national poverty rate is 63.8%, while nations such as Australia have a national poverty rate of 13%.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INDICATORS OF GLOBAL POVERTY

Liberia’s poverty levels can be clearly identified from their economic and social indicators.

Liberia’s total national GDP (gross domestic product) at the …show more content…

Due to high levels of poverty in Liberia, there is a large division between the socioeconomic classes. With a national poverty rate as high as 64%, there is a small portion of the population categorized as wealthy. This small portion of wealthy citizens have a large influence government choices and federal rule. This influence leads to corruption in government and often police. Even though corruption is still a big issue, it is greatly improving considering that in 2010, the nation was 24% free from corruption. Currently, Liberia is 33.8% free from corruption. This is a great improvement and hopefully the progress continues in future years. Below is a graph displaying the freedom from corruption in Liberia over recent years in relation to the global …show more content…

Currently, both the flat taxation rate and the corporate taxation rates are 25%. The government also receives taxation for property and goods and services. This low amount of money received in taxation has caused an extreme limitation in government spending. The government spending of Liberia is 31% of the national income and the tax burden is 20% of the national GDP.

Market Issues

The average tariff rate in Liberia is 10.4%. The government has enforced such a high tariff rate in order to restrict foreign investments. Due to poverty, the economy of Liberia is extremely vulnerable. Foreign investments have the potential to cause serious damage to the economy of the nation and have major consequences. This is why the government has places such high tariff rates to restrict such events from occurring.

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