Sierra Leone's real interest rate (%) was 18.27% in 2025, the latest year in the World Bank's World Development Indicators. That is up 3.68 percentage points from 14.59% in 2015.
Key figures
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Latest | 18.27% | 2025 |
| Five years earlier | 4.12% | 2020 |
| Ten years earlier | 14.59% | 2015 |
| Highest | 27.17% | 2002 |
| Lowest | -53.64% | 2001 |
| Average since 2016 | 5.49% | 2016–2025 |
| First recorded | 2.66% | 1965 |
What the numbers say
In 2025, Sierra Leone's real interest rate (%) rose 9.1 percentage points on 2024 (from 9.17% to 18.27%).
Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was +0.25 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 23.11 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.
On record, the biggest yearly rise was 80.81 percentage points in 2002 and the biggest yearly fall was 75.88 percentage points in 2001. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.
From 2016 to 2025 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains less than 1% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.
Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.
How it compares
In 2025, Sierra Leone had the 4th highest value of the 73 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.
Closest to Sierra Leone in the 2025 ranking
- Madagascar — 1st of 73: 47.63%
- Brazil — 2nd of 73: 37.46%
- Mozambique — 3rd of 73: 18.75%
- Guyana — 5th of 73: 17.56%
- Timor-Leste — 6th of 73: 15.85%
- Congo, Dem. Rep. — 7th of 73: 15.12%
What this measures
An interest rate is the amount charged, expressed as a percentage of the principal over a period of time, by the owners of certain kinds of financial assets for putting the financial assets at the disposal of another institutional unit. The real interest rate is the lending interest rate adjusted for inflation as measured by the GDP deflator. The terms and conditions attached to lending rates differ by country, however, limiting their comparability. This indicator is expressed as a percentage (a÷b)*100.
All 61 values
| Year | Real interest rate (%) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 18.27 |
| 2024 | 9.17 |
| 2023 | -7.44 |
| 2022 | -6.02 |
| 2021 | 10.6 |
| 2020 | 4.12 |
| 2019 | 7.32 |
| 2018 | -0.0509 |
| 2017 | 7.59 |
| 2016 | 11.38 |
| 2015 |
Real interest rate (%) in nearby economies
- Angola — -0.93% (2025)
- Benin — 4.56% (2021)
- Botswana — 4.24% (2024)
- Burkina Faso — 6.13% (2021)
- Burundi — -4.95% (2025)
- Cabo Verde — 5.9% (2025)
- Comoros — 0.05% (2022)
- Congo, Dem. Rep. — 15.12% (2025)
- Côte d'Ivoire — 6.55% (2016)
- Eswatini — 9.45% (2024)
- Gambia, The — 13.08% (2025)
- Guinea-Bissau
More financial sector data for Sierra Leone
- Domestic credit to private sector by banks (% of GDP) — 5.48% (2025)
- Net domestic credit (current LCU) — 41.83 billion (2025)
- Net foreign assets (current LCU) — 417.37 million (2025)
- Monetary sector credit to private sector (% of GDP) — 5.5% (2025)
- Broad money (current LCU) — 38.15 billion (2025)
- Broad money (% of GDP) — 22.56% (2025)
- Claims on central government, etc. (% of GDP) — 19.17% (2025)
- Domestic credit to private sector (% of GDP) — 5.5% (2025)
- GDP deflator (base year varies by country) — 249 (2025)
Reading data like this
Questions people ask
- What is Sierra Leone's real interest rate (%)?
- 18.27% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).
- How has it changed since 1965?
- It is up 15.61 percentage points from 2.66% in 1965. The highest value was 27.17% in 2002 and the lowest -53.64% in 2001.
- How does Sierra Leone rank?
- 4th highest of 73 economies with data for 2025.
- Is the latest change in real interest rate (%) unusual for Sierra Leone?
- In 2025, Sierra Leone's real interest rate (%) rose 9.1 percentage points on 2024 (from 9.17% to 18.27%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was +0.25 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 23.11 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.
Source
World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator FR.INR.RINR, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: International Financial Statistics database, International Monetary Fund (IMF); World Development Indicators, World Bank (WB) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.
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