The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of Mali was $820 in 1999. Mali's great potential wealth lies in mining and the production of agricultural commodities, livestock, and fish. The most productive agricultural area lies along the banks of the Niger River, the Inner Niger Delta and the southwestern region around Sikasso.
Macro-economic trend
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2021. Inflation below 5% is in green.[9]
Year
GDP
(in bil. US$ PPP)
GDP per capita
(in US$ PPP)
GDP
(in bil. US$ nominal)
GDP growth (real)
Inflation rate (in Percent)
Government debt (in% of GDP)
1980
3.8
542
0.2
2.0
20.3%
n/a
1981
4.0
555
0.3
1.7
12.7%
n/a
1982
3.8
510
0.3
1.5
3.9%
n/a
1983
4.0
536
0.4
1.4
10.5%
n/a
1984
4.3
557
0.4
1.4
10.7%
n/a
1985
4.6
583
0.5
1.4
9.1%
n/a
1986
4.9
622
0.6
2.0
-1.4%
n/a
1987
5.2
644
0.6
2.3
-14.9%
n/a
1988
5.4
658
0.7
2.3
8.9%
n/a
1989
6.2
746
0.8
2.8
-0.2%
n/a
1990
7.0
830
0.8
3.2
1.6%
n/a
1991
7.8
904
0.9
3.3
1.5%
n/a
1992
7.9
888
1.0
3.4
-5.9%
n/a
1993
8.3
917
1.0
3.4
-0.6%
n/a
1994
8.8
947
1.1
2.6
24.3%
n/a
1995
9.3
970
1.2
3.3
11.6%
n/a
1996
10.2
1,032
1.4
3.4
6.5%
n/a
1997
10.8
1,072
1.6
3.2
-0.7%
n/a
1998
11.3
1,087
1.7
3.3
4.0%
n/a
1999
12.1
1,140
1.9
3.4
-1.2%
n/a
2000
12.4
1,133
2.0
3.0
-0.8%
90.5%
2001
14.6
1,298
2.1
3.5
5.2%
77.5%
2002
15.3
1,319
2.3
3.9
5.0%
42.6%
2003
17.1
1,423
2.9
4.7
-1.3%
44.2%
2004
17.8
1,438
3.2
5.5
-3.1%
42.4%
2005
19.5
1,529
2.9
6.3
6.4%
46.6%
2006
21.1
1,597
3.7
6.9
1.6%
18.1%
2007
22.4
1,641
4.1
8.2
1.4%
18.5%
2008
23.9
1,695
4.6
9.9
9.2%
20.2%
2009
25.2
1,729
4.3
10.2
2.4%
21.9%
2010
26.9
1,787
4.7
10.7
1.2%
25.3%
2011
28.3
1,827
5.2
13.0
3.0%
24.0%
2012
28.2
1,764
5.4
12.5
5.3%
25.4%
2013
29.8
1,813
6.1
13.2
-0.6%
26.4%
2014
32.4
1,915
7.0
14.4
0.9%
26.9%
2015
35.4
2,033
7.6
13.1
1.4%
30.7%
2016
39.3
2,189
8.3
14.0
-1.8%
36.0%
2017
41.6
2,247
9.0
15.4
2.4%
36.0%
2018
44.6
2,338
9.9
17.1
1.9%
37.5%
2019
47.6
2,420
10.8
17.3
-3.0%
40.7%
2020
47.5
2,348
7.3
17.6
0.5%
47.3%
2021
51.0
2,447
10.8
19.8
3.8%
51.9%
Agriculture
The major agricultural region in southern Mali, showing isohyet lines and crop intensity percentages. Mali's most productive agricultural region is located between Bamako and Mopti. Irrigation water is used mainly for rice while cotton is grown as a rainfed crop. (USDA: 2001)
In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products.[10]
Agricultural activities occupy 70% of Mali's labor force and provide 42% of the GDP. Cotton and livestock make up 75%–80% of Mali's annual exports. Small-scale traditional farming dominates the agricultural sector, with subsistence farming (of cereals, primarily sorghum, pearl millet, and maize) on about 90% of the 14,000 square kilometres (1,400,000ha; 3,500,000 acres) under cultivation.
Man in a Sidibé Agro-techniques greenhouse holding a pepper.
The most productive agricultural area lies along the banks of the Niger River between Bamako and Mopti and extends south to the borders of Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. Average rainfall varies in this region from 500mm (20in) per year around Mopti to 1,400mm (55in) in the south near Sikasso. This area is most important for the production of cotton, rice, pearl millet, maize, vegetables, tobacco and tree crops.
Annual rainfall, critical for Mali's agriculture, has been at or above average since 1993. Cereal production, including rice, has grown annually, and the 1997–98 cotton harvest reached a record 500,000 tons.
Until the mid-1960s, Mali was self-sufficient in grains — pearl millet, sorghum, rice and maize. Diminished harvests during bad years, a growing population, changing dietary habits, and, most importantly, policy constraints on agricultural production resulted in grain deficits almost every year from 1965 to 1986.
Production has rebounded since 1987 due to agricultural policy reforms undertaken by the government and supported by the Western donor nations. Liberalization of producer prices and an open cereals market have created incentives to production. These reforms, combined with adequate rainfall, successful integrated rural agriculture programs in the south, and improved management of the Office du Niger, have led to surplus cereal production over the past five years.
Rice
Rice planting in Mali
Rice is grown extensively along the banks of the Niger between Ségou and Mopti, with the most important rice-producing area at the Office du Niger, located north of Ségou toward the Mauritanian border. Using water diverted from the Niger, the Office du Niger irrigates about 600km2 (230sqmi) of land for rice and sugarcane production. About one-third of Mali's paddy rice is produced at the Office du Niger.
Sorghum
Sorghum is planted extensively in the drier parts of the country and along the banks of the Niger in eastern Mali, as well as in the lake beds in the Niger delta region. During the wet season, farmers near the town of Dire have cultivated wheat on irrigated fields for hundreds of years. Peanuts are grown throughout the country but are concentrated in the area around Kita, west of Bamako.
Livestock
In 2019, Mali produced 276 million liters of cow's milk, 270 million liters of camel milk, 243 million liters of goat milk, 176 million liters of sheep's milk, 187 thousand tons of beef, 64 thousand tons of lamb meat, 54 thousand tons of chicken meat, among others.[11]
Mali's resource in livestock consists of millions of cattle, sheep, and goats. Approximately 40% of Mali's herds were lost during the great drought in 1972–74. The level was gradually restored, but the herds were again decimated in the 1983–85 drought. The overall size of Mali's herds is not expected to reach pre-drought levels in the north of the country, where encroachment of the desert has forced many nomadic herders to abandon pastoral activities and turn instead to farming.
The largest concentrations of cattle are in the areas north of Bamako and Ségou extending into the Niger delta, but herding activity is gradually shifting southward, due to the effects of previous droughts. Sheep, goats, and camels are raised to the exclusion of cattle in the dry areas north and east of Timbuktu.
Fishing
Fishermen on a river in Mali
The Niger River is also an important source of fish, providing food for riverside communities; the surplus—smoked, salted, and dried—is exported. Due to drought and diversion of river water for agriculture, fish production has steadily declined since the early 1980s.
Mining has long been an important aspect of the Malian economy. Gold, largest source of Malian exports,[12] is still mined in the southern region: at the end of the 20th century Mali had the third highest gold production in Africa (after South Africa and Ghana).[13] These goldfields, the largest of which lie in the Bambouk Mountains in western Mali (Kenieba Cercle), were a major source of wealth and trade as far back as the Ghana Empire.
Salt mining in the far north, especially in the Saharan oases of Taoudenni and Taghaza have been a crucial part of the Malian economy for at least seven hundred years. Both resources were vital components of the Trans-Saharan trade, stretching back to the time of the Roman Empire.
From the 1960s to the 1990s state owned mining—especially for gold—expanded, followed by a period of expansion by international contract mining.
In 1991, following the lead of the International Development Association, Mali relaxed the enforcement of mining codes which led to greater foreign investment in the mining industry.[14] From 1994 to 2007, national and foreign companies were granted around 150 operating licences along with more than 25 certificates for exploitation and more than 200 research permits. Gold mining in Mali has increased dramatically, with more than 50 tonnes in 2007 from less than half a tonne produced annually at the end of the 1980s. Mining revenue totaled some 300 billion CFA francs in 2007 more than a thirty times increase from the 1995 total national mining revenue of less than 10 billion CFA. Government revenues from mining contracts, less than 1% of the state income in 1989 were almost 18% in 2007.[15]
Gold
In 2019, the country was the 16th largest world producer of gold.[16]
Gold accounted for some 80% of mining activity in the mid-2000s, while there remain considerable proven reserves of other minerals not currently exploited. Gold has become Mali's largest export,[12] after cotton—historically the basis of Mali's export industry—and livestock. The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impacts caused by fluctuations in world cotton markets and loss of trade from the Ivorian Civil War to the south.[17] Large private investments in gold mining include Anglogold-Ashanti ($250 million) in Sadiola and Yatela, and Randgold Resources ($140 million) in Morila – both multinational South African companies located respectively in the north-western and southern parts of the country.
Social and environmental impacts
While great incomes are produced, most staff employed in the mining industries are from outside Mali, and residents in the areas of intensive mining complain of little benefit from the industry. Populations complain of displacement for the construction of mines: at Sadiola Gold Mine, 43 villages have lost some land to the mine there, while in Fourou, near the large Syama goldmines, 121 villages saw some displacement.[18]
In addition, the continued exploitation of unregulated small scale mining, often by child laborers, supplies a large international gold market in Bamako which feeds into international production.[19] Recent criticism has surfaced around the working conditions, pay, and the widespread use of child labor in these small gold mines (as reported recently in the U.S. Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor),[20][21] and the method with which middlemen, in regional centers like Sikasso and Kayes, purchase and transport gold. Gold collected in the towns is sold on—with almost no regulation or oversight—to larger merchant houses in Bamako or Conakry, and eventually to smelters in Europe.[22] Ecological factors, especially pollution of water by mine tailings, is a major source of concern.
During the colonial period, private capital investment was virtually nonexistent, and public investment was devoted largely to the Office du Niger irrigation scheme and to administrative expenses. Following independence, Mali built some light industries with the help of various donors. Manufacturing, consisting principally of processed agricultural products, accounted for about 8% of the GDP in 1990.
Economic reform
Between 1992 and 1995, Mali implemented an economic adjustment program that resulted in economic growth and a reduction in financial imbalances. This was reflected in the increased GDP growth rates (9.6% in 2002) and decreased inflation. GDP in 2002 amounted to US$3.2 billion, made up of agriculture 37.8%, industry 26.4% and services 35.9%.
Effective implementation of macroeconomic stabilization and economic liberalization policies and the stable political situation resulted in good economic performance and enabled Mali to strengthen the foundations for a market-oriented economy and encourage private sector development, backed up by significant progress in implementing the country's privatization program. Agricultural reform measures were aimed at diversifying and expanding production as well as at reducing costs.
Mali's economic performance is fragile, characterized by a vulnerability to climatic conditions, fluctuating terms of trade, dependence on ports in neighboring countries.
Mali produces cotton, cereals and rice. Although locally produced rice now provides competition to imported Asian rice, Mali's primary export is cotton. Livestock exports and industry (producing vegetable and cottonseed oils, and textiles) have experienced growth. Although most of Mali is desert or semi-desert, the Niger River is a potential irrigation source. Exports are in three primary sector products (56% gold, 27% cotton, 5% livestock). Ivory Coast is where most of the country's trade goes through and the crisis previously experienced here had a negative effect on Mali's economy.
The mining industry in Mali has recently attracted renewed interest and investment from foreign companies. Gold and phosphate are the only minerals mined in Mali although deposits of copper and diamonds do also exist. The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impact of the cotton and Ivory Coast crises.
The development of the oil industry is important due to the country's dependence on the importation of all petroleum products from neighbouring states. Electricity is provided by the parastatal utility, Electricite du Mali.
Mali residents are mostly French speaking. Mali is a major recipient of foreign aid from many sources, including multilateral organizations (most significantly the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Arab Funds), and bilateral programs funded by the European Union, France, United States, Canada, Netherlands, and Germany. Cooperation from Brazil has been growing quickly, especially in cotton production, by means of developing cotton seeds adapted to the Malian soil. Since 2009, Brazilian cooperation in Mali has raised the quality of the cotton fields and their productivity. Brazilian aide has also started since 2019 in cattle raising and the recovery of eroded soils for agriculture. Before 1991, the former Soviet Union had been a major source of economic and military aid, including construction of a cement plant and the Kalana gold mine.
Currently, aid from Russia is restricted mainly to training and provision of spare parts. Chinese aid remains high, and Chinese-Malian joint venture companies have become more numerous in the last 3 years, leading to the opening of a Chinese investment center. The Chinese are major participants in the textile industry and in large scale construction projects, including a bridge across the Niger, a conference center, an expressway in Bamako, and a stadium in Bamako completed in 2001 for the Africa Cup competition in 2002, named Stade du 26 Mars.
In 1998, U.S. assistance reached over $40 million. This included $39 million in sector support through United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs, largely channeled to local communities through private voluntary agencies; Peace Corps program budget of $2.2 million for more than 160 Volunteers serving in Mali; Self Help and the Democracy Funds of $170,500; and $650,000 designated for electoral support. Military assistance includes $275,000 for the International Military Education Training (IMET) program, $1.6 million for the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), $60,000 for Joint Combined Exercise Training (JCET), and $100,000 for Humanitarian Assistance.
Statistics
Dyeing bezin, one of several types of cloth made in Mali.GDP per capita development of Mali
GDP: purchasing power parity – $41.22 billion (2017 est.)
GDP – real growth rate: 5.4% (2017 est.)
GDP – per capita: purchasing power parity – $2,200 (2017 est.)
GDP – composition by sector: agriculture: 41.8% (2017 est.) industry: 18.1% (2017 est.) services: 40.5% (2017 est.)
Population below poverty line: 36.1% (2005 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 2.4% (2001 est.) highest 10%: 30.2% (2001 est.)
Exports – partners: Switzerland 31.8%, UAE 15.4%, Burkina Faso 7.8%, Cote d'Ivoire 7.3%, South Africa 5%, Bangladesh 4.6% (2017)
Imports: $3.644 billion (2017 est.)
Imports – commodities: petroleum, machinery and equipment, construction materials, foodstuffs, textiles
Imports – partners: Senegal 24.4%, China 13.2%, Cote d'Ivoire 9%, France 7.3% (2017)
Debt – external: $4.192 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
Economic aid – recipient: $691.5 million (2005)
Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes
Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 – 647.25 (January 2000), 615.70 (1999), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55 (1996), 499.15 (1995) note: since 1 January 1999, the CFAF is pegged to the euro at a rate of 655.957 CFA francs per euro
The economy of Benin remains underdeveloped and dependent on subsistence agriculture and cotton. Cotton accounts for 40% of Benin's GDP and roughly 80% of official export receipts. There is also production of textiles, palm products, and cocoa beans. Maize (corn), beans, rice, peanuts, cashews, pineapples, cassava, yams, and other various tubers are grown for local subsistence. Benin began producing a modest quantity of offshore oil in October 1982. Production ceased in recent years but exploration of new sites is ongoing.
The economy of Burkina Faso is based primarily on subsistence farming and livestock raising. Burkina Faso has an average income purchasing-power-parity per capita of $1,900 and nominal per capita of $790 in 2014. More than 80% of the population relies on subsistence agriculture, with only a small fraction directly involved in industry and services. Highly variable rainfall, poor soils, lack of adequate communications and other infrastructure, a low literacy rate, and a stagnant economy are all longstanding problems of this landlocked country. The export economy also remained subject to fluctuations in world prices.
The economy of Chad suffers from the landlocked country's geographic remoteness, drought, lack of infrastructure, and political turmoil. About 85% of the population depends on agriculture, including livestock herding. Of Africa's Francophone countries, Chad benefited least from the 50% devaluation of their currencies in January 1994. Financial aid from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and other sources is directed mainly at improving agriculture, especially livestock production. Because of a lack of financing, the development of oil fields near Doba, originally due to finish in 2000, was delayed until 2003. It was finally developed and is now operated by ExxonMobil. Regarding gross domestic product, Chad ranks 147th globally with $11.051 billion as of 2018.
The economy of the Central African Republic is $2.321 billion by gross domestic product as of 2019, even lower than much smaller countries such as Barbados with an estimated annual per capita income of just $805 as measured by purchasing power parity in 2019.
The economy of the Dominican Republic is the seventh largest in Latin America, and is the largest in the Caribbean and Central American region. The Dominican Republic is an upper-middle income developing country with important sectors including mining, tourism, manufacturing, energy, real estate, infrastructure, telecommunications and agriculture. The Dominican Republic is on track to achieve its goal of becoming a high-income country by 2030, and is expected to grow 79% in this decade. The country is the site of the single largest gold mine in Latin America, the Pueblo Viejo mine. Although the service sector is currently the leading employer of Dominicans, agriculture remains an important sector in terms of the domestic market and is in second place in terms of export earnings. Tourism accounts for more than $7.4 billion in annual earnings in 2019. Free-trade zone earnings and tourism are the fastest-growing export sectors. A leading growth engine in the Free-trade zone sector is the production of medical equipment for export having a value-added per employee of $20,000 USD, total revenue of $1.5 billion USD, and a growth rate of 7.7% in 2019. The medical instrument export sector represents one of the highest-value added sectors of the country's economy, a true growth engine for the country's emerging market. Remittances are an important sector of the economy, contributing $8.2 billion in 2020. Most of these funds are used to cover household expenses, such as housing, food, clothing, health care and education. Secondarily, remittances have financed businesses and productive activities. Thirdly, this combined effect has induced investment by the private sector and helps fund the public sector through its value-added tax. The combined import market including the free-trade-zones amounts to a market of $20 billion a year in 2019. The combined export sector had revenues totaling $11 billion in 2019. The consumer market is equivalent to $61 billion in 2019. An important indicator is the average commercial loan interest rate, which directs short-term investment and stimulates long-term investment in the economy. It is currently 8.30%, as of June 2021.
The economy of Ethiopia is a mixed and transition economy with a large public sector. The government of Ethiopia is in the process of privatizing many of the state-owned businesses and moving toward a market economy. The banking, telecommunication and transportation sectors of the economy are dominated by government-owned companies.
The economy of Guinea is dependent largely on agriculture and other rural activities. Guinea is richly endowed with good minerals, possessing an estimated quarter of the world's proven reserves of bauxite, more than 1.8 billion tonnes of high-grade iron ore, significant diamond and gold deposits, and undetermined quantities of uranium. In 2021, Guinea was the world's biggest exporter of Aluminium Ore 2021 trade surplus was $4.3B.
The economy of Kyrgyzstan is heavily dependent on the agricultural sector. Cotton, tobacco, wool, and meat are the main agricultural products, although only tobacco and cotton are exported in any quantity. According to Healy Consultants, Kyrgyzstan's economy relies heavily on the strength of industrial exports, with plentiful reserves of gold, mercury and uranium. The economy also relies heavily on remittances from foreign workers. Following independence, Kyrgyzstan was progressive in carrying out market reforms, such as an improved regulatory system and land reform. In 1998, Kyrgyzstan was the first Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) country to be accepted into the World Trade Organization. Much of the government's stock in enterprises has been sold. Kyrgyzstan's economic performance has been hindered by widespread corruption, low foreign investment and general regional instability. Despite those issues, Kyrgyzstan is ranked 70th on the ease of doing business index.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of Niger was $16.617 billion US dollars in 2023, according to official data from the World Bank. This data is based largely on internal markets, subsistence agriculture, and the export of raw commodities: foodstuffs to neighbors and raw minerals to world markets. Niger, a landlocked West African nation that straddles the Sahel, has consistently been ranked on the bottom of the Human Development Index, at 0.394 as of 2019. It has a very low per capita income, and ranks among the least developed and most heavily indebted countries in the world, despite having large raw commodities and a relatively stable government and society not currently affected by civil war or terrorism. Economic activity centers on subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry, re-export trade, and export of uranium.
The economy of Senegal is driven by mining, construction, tourism, fishing and agriculture, which are the main sources of employment in rural areas, despite abundant natural resources in iron, zircon, gas, gold, phosphates, and numerous oil discoveries recently. Senegal's economy gains most of its foreign exchange from fish, phosphates, groundnuts, tourism, and services. As one of the dominant parts of the economy, the agricultural sector of Senegal is highly vulnerable to environmental conditions, such as variations in rainfall and climate change, and changes in world commodity prices.
The economy of Tanzania is a lower-middle income economy that is centered around Manufacturing, Tourism, Agriculture, and financial services. Tanzania's economy has been transitioning from a planned economy to a market economy since 1985. Although total GDP has increased since these reforms began, GDP per capita dropped sharply at first, and only exceeded the pre-transition figure in around 2007.
The economy of Togo has struggled greatly. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranks it as the tenth poorest country in the world, with development undercut by political instability, lowered commodity prices, and external debts. While industry and services play a role, the economy is dependent on subsistence agriculture, with industrialization and regional banking suffering major setbacks.
The economy of Uzbekistan, formerly a Soviet-style command economy, has undergone changes that align more with a market economy. Under the administration of Islam Karimov currency conversion capacity was restricted, imports were controlled and Uzbekistan's borders with neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were sporadically closed. Since the election of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan economic and social reforms have been implemented to boost growth and modernize the country. International Financial Institutions, including EBRD, Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, are supportive of the reform process and increased their presence in the country.
The economy of Madagascar is US$9.769 billion by gross domestic product as of 2020, being a market economy and is supported by an agricultural industry and emerging tourism, textile and mining industries. Malagasy agriculture produces tropical staple crops such as rice and cassava, as well as cash crops such as vanilla and coffee.
The economy of Guyana is one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 19.9% in 2021. In 2024, Guyana had a per capita gross domestic product of Int$80,137 and an average GDP growth of 4.2% over the previous decade. Guyana's economy was transformed in 2015 with the discovery of an offshore oil field in the country's waters about 190 km from Georgetown, making the first commercial-grade crude oil draw in December 2019, sending it abroad for refining.
The economy of Mozambique is $14.396 billion by gross domestic product as of 2018, and has developed since the end of the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992). In 1987, the government embarked on a series of macroeconomic reforms, which were designed to stabilize the economy. These steps, combined with donor assistance and with political stability since the multi-party elections in 1994, have led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth rate. Inflation was brought to single digits during the late 1990s, although it returned to double digits in 2000–02. Fiscal reforms, including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service, have improved the government's revenue collection abilities.
The economy of the Gambia is heavily reliant on agriculture. The Gambia has no significant mineral or other natural resources, and has a limited agricultural base. About 75% of the population depends on crops and livestock for its livelihood. Small-scale manufacturing activity features the processing of peanuts, fish, and animal hides.
Agriculture was the foundation of the economy in Ivory Coast and its main source of growth. In 1987 the agricultural sector contributed 35 percent of the country's GDP and 66 percent of its export revenues, provided employment for about two-thirds of the national work force, and generated substantial revenues despite the drop in coffee and cocoa prices. From 1965 to 1980, agricultural GDP grew by an average 4.6 percent per year. Growth of agricultural GDP from coffee, cocoa, and timber production, which totaled nearly 50 percent of Ivory Coast's export revenues, averaged 7 percent a year from 1965 to 1980.
The economy of Ivory Coast is stable and currently growing, in the aftermath of political instability in recent decades. The Ivory Coast's economy is largely market-based and depends heavily on the agricultural sector. Almost 70% of the Ivorian people are engaged in some form of agricultural activity. The economy grew 82% in the 1960s, reaching a peak growth of 360% in the 1970s, but this proved unsustainable and it shrank by 28% in the 1980s and a further 22% in the 1990s. This decline, coupled with high population growth, resulted in a steady fall in living standards. The gross national product per capita, now rising again, was about US$727 in 1996. It was substantially higher two decades before. Real GDP growth is expected to average 6.5% in 2024–25.
The mining industry of Mali is dominated by gold extraction but also produces diamonds, rocksalt, phosphates, semi precious stones, bauxite, iron ore, and manganese. The importance of mining and production of raw minerals has changed throughout time and has involved many foreign stakeholders, most notably France, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa. Gold, followed by cotton, is the top export item, making it a large contributor to the country’s economy. Mineral extraction in the country is done both via industrial mining and artisanal mining, and both methods of production have had profound impacts on the economy, sociocultural landscape, and environment.
West African Agricultural Market Observer/Observatoire du Marché Agricole (RESIMAO), a project of the West-African Market Information Network (WAMIS-NET), provides live market and commodity prices from fifty seven regional and local public agricultural markets across Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Togo, and Nigeria. Sixty commodities are tracked weekly. The project is run by the Benin Ministry of Agriculture, and a number of European, African, and United Nations agencies.
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−$886 million (2017 est.) [8] 
$4.192 billion (31 December 2017 est.) [8] 
35.4% of GDP (2017 est.) [8] 
