MONROVIA, Nov. 6 -- On paper, 2025 was a good year for Liberia. The economy grew 5.1 percent, its strongest pace in the five years the World Bank charts. Inflation ended the year at 4 percent. The budget deficit narrowed, and export earnings leapt by nearly 58 percent on the back of gold and iron ore.

By Rodney D Sieh

Yet by the Bank's own estimate, more Liberians slipped into extreme poverty - from 34.6 percent of the population in 2024 to 36.1 percent in 2025.

That contradiction sits at the heart of Beyond Growth, the 7th edition of the World Bank's Liberia Economic Update, released in October. Its diagnosis is blunt: Liberia is growing in the places where few Liberians work, and stalling in the places where most of them do. And it t...