Ebola could drain billions of dollars from African economies: World Bank

(Reuters) - The largest-ever outbreak of Ebola could drain billions of dollars from economies in West Africa by the end of next year if the epidemic is not contained, the World Bank said in an analysis on Wednesday.

The global development lender predicted that slow containment of the deadly virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone could lead to broader regional contagion, particularly through tourism and trade.

Under the worst-case scenario, Guinea's economic growth could be reduced by 2.3 percentage points next year while Sierra Leone's growth would be cut by 8.9 percentage points. Liberia would be hardest hit, with a reduction of 11.7 percentage points next year.

"We really need to scale up our response and what we have learned from this study is that time is of the essence," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told reporters.

Even under the best-case scenario, countries would need a "massive" scaling up of their response to contain the disease in the next four to six months, the bank said. Read more