The Economy of the Congo

The democratic republic of the Congo is a very wealthy country with abundant natural resources like cobalt, copper, petroleum, gold, silver, and diamonds. The country also does a little substace farming eventhough 3% of the land is arable and also has huge amounts of rare woods like ebony. The country of the Congo may be rich but its people are not. The people of the Congo are extremely poor, so poor that their currency the Congolese franc is worth 464 francs per every one American dollar.

this is a modern Congolese franc

The miserable economy all started in the 1950s. During this time the Belgians controlled the Congo and exploited its natural resources, mostly of mining and other mining of valuable metals. Then in the 1960s when the Congo gained its independence the economy declined, and then rose again in the late 1960s, then to only go decline to in the 1970s eventually turning to full collapse by the 1990s. The economy now has been trying to build itself back up trading with Belgium, France, USA, Germany and South Africa.
The Congo still has lots of recourses it has not taken into consideration like hydroelectric power, but it still has a long way to go before the people of Congo reach full stability

Sources

"Congo, Democratic Republic of the." CIA World Book. 16 August, 2007. CIA. 4 Sep 2007 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cg.html.

"Economy." Info Please. 2007. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 4 Sep 2007 http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0857521.html.

"1950: Belgium And Belgian Congo." Msn Encarta. 2007. Microsoft. 4 Sep 2007 .