section_path: Economy
section_name: Economy
paragraph_text: Economy
  
  The economy of the DR Congo has grown from US$9.02 billion at the end of the Second Congo War in 2003 to US$72.48 billion in 2024 by nominal GDP, and from $ 29.23 billion to $190.13 billion by PPP-adjusted GDP during the same time period. Minerals and metal, specifically cobalt and copper, made up 80% of the country's exports in 2023. Its largest trade partner by a significant margin is China, which represented 41% of its exports in 2024, followed by Zambia, South Africa, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. The DRC's economy, especially its mining sector, received significant foreign investment, and after the early 2000s it experienced high GDP growth rates that were above the average for sub-Saharan Africa. This led to improvements in infrastructure, but the growth has not alleviated poverty for the population, the majority of which (65%) is involved in subsistence agriculture. Most jobs are informal and there is also very high youth unemployment. An estimated 73.5% of people in the DRC lived below the international poverty line of US$2.15 per day as of 2024, making the it among the five poorest countries in the world. The DRC had the lowest Human Development Index of the 187 ranked countries through 2011. Agriculture is also a large sector of the economy, though its output has declined over the past several decades and the country is dependent on food imports. As of 2023 food-price inflation had reached 173%.
  
  At independence in 1960, the DRC was the second-most-industrialized country in Africa after South Africa; it boasted a thriving mining sector and a relatively productive agriculture sector. It is widely considered one of the world's richest countries in natural resources; its untapped deposits of raw minerals are estimated to be worth in excess of US$24 trillion. Despite such vast mineral wealth, the economy of the DRC has declined drastically since the mid-1980s. The country generated up to 70% of its export revenue from minerals in the 1970s and 1980s and was particularly hit when resource prices deteriorated at that time. Due to the fall in commodity prices, widespread corruption, and the collapse of the currency from hyperinflation, by the early 1990s the formal economy had nearly ceased to exist, with much of the population depending on subsistence agriculture or informal bartering. The new government tried to implement a currency reform in 1997 after the First Congo War, but was disrupted by outbreak of the Second Congo War in 1998, which worsened all of the problems, along with infrastructure breakdown and the lack of a clear legal system. Economic stability improved in 2003 with assistance from international donors following the withdrawal of foreign troops, though continuing conflicts and the resulting humanitarian crisis still undermine economic development.