Despite the rising public concerns over the Ebola epidemic, to date the disease's impact on the global economy has been muted. That's chiefly because the countries most affected by the disease -- Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- are small in economic terms, accounting for roughly 2 percent of the gross domestic product of Sub-Saharan Africa.
But the regional economic effects of Ebola could be far more serious if the outbreak were to spread to Ivory Coast and Ghana, which are near the Ebola zone. Such concerns are reflected in the rising price of cocoa, which is widely produced in both countries and which has climbed 23 percent this year even as the price of other commodities has fallen. Ghana is also an important producer of oil and precious minerals.
Borders in the region are porous, which adds to the international community's challenges in combating this disease.
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