The Congolese economy is based primarily on subsistence agriculture and the exploitation of natural resources. Commercial activities are also valuable, primarily because the nation provides key port and transport facilities for the Central African Republic, Chad, and Gabon. In 1997 the around national budget included $307 million in revenues and $601 million in expenditures.

Petroleum and mining are the major export industries, followed by forestry and commercial agriculture. Light manufacturing (mostly shoes), sugar processing, and assembly industries also assumed greater importance in the 1980s. These activities, employed only a small fraction of the labour force, most of which was engaged in agriculture and the non-salaried informal urban economy. In the late 1980s, following the fall in world oil prices, Congo experienced a major financial crisis. Negotiations for aid from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank produced agreements to privatize portions of the national economy and to reduce the national bureaucracy. Such agreements may have improved the ability of Congo to compete in the international economy; at the same time, they did little to ameliorate the poverty of much of the population.

The economy is a mixture of village agriculture and handicrafts, an industrial area based largely on oil, support services, and a government characterized by budget problems and overstaffing. Oil has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the economy, providing a major share of government revenues and exports. In the early 1980s, rapidly rising oil revenues enabled the government to finance large-scale development projects with GDP growth averaging 5% annually, one of the highest rates in Africa. Moreover, the government has mortgaged a substantial portion of its oil earnings, contributing to the government's shortage of revenues. The 12 January 1994 devaluation of Franc Zone currencies by 50% resulted in inflation of 61% in 1994, but inflation has subsided since. Economic reform efforts continued with the support of international organizations, notably the World Bank and the IMF. The reform program came to a halt in June 1997 when civil war erupted. Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO, who returned to power when the war ended in October 1997, publicly expressed interest in moving forward on economic reforms and privatization and in renewing cooperation with international financial institutions. economic progress was badly hurt by slumping oil prices and the resumption of armed conflict in December 1998, which worsened the Republic of the Congo's budget deficit. Even with the IMF's renewed confidence and high world oil prices, Congo is unlikely to realize growth of more than 5% in 2001-02. With the return to fragile peace, the IMF approved a $14 million credit in November 2000 to aid post-conflict reconstruction.