Mali

Mali: steady but modest growth, 1980–2024

A landlocked Sahelian economy built on gold mining, cotton, and livestock, Mali has seen growth repeatedly disrupted by insurgency in the north since 2012 and by military coups in 2020 and 2021. Between 1980 and 2024, Mali's GDP per capita grew from $359 to $1,095 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 2.6% — steady but modest growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 3.4% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 4.8 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 46.6% to 33.3% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 41.9% to 36.3% of GDP, a comparatively unusual pattern for this period. On human development, life expectancy rose from 40.3 to 60.7 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 0.8% to 5.1%, while the urban population share grew from 14.0% to 31.6%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions rose from 0.04 to 0.30 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 50.1 to 35.7; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 89.4% to 36.1%.