HARARE, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The unprecedented Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has claimed 4,500 lives, will significantly hurt the economy of the three hard-hit countries -- Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, but the impact on the continent's overall growth is minimal, a top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official to Africa said Thursday.

Addressing a press conference after presenting the 2014 IMF regional economic outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa in Harare, IMF director for Africa Antoinette Sayeh said the three countries' share on Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) is merely 1 percent and therefore unlikely to upset the continent's overall growth, which the IMF projects to rise to 5.8 percent next year from 5 percent in 2014.

She said the IMF's growth forecasts had already taken into account the projected impact of the Ebola outbreak if it stretches to about mid-year next year.

Using the baseline that the epidemic will have been contained by June next year, the IMF estimates the economies of Liberia and Sierra Leone to shed by about four percent and Guinea by 1.5 percent in 2014.

Sayeh emphasized that the three countries will register economic growth this year although "it will be a lot more limited than what had been expected." The growth, she said, will be driven by robust growth the three countries registered early this year before the outbreak of the disease.

Sayeh noted that the agriculture, mining and services sectors of the three countries had been severely battered by the Ebola outbreak while neighboring countries such as Gambia and Senegal were starting to see tourism activities being substantially curtailed.

Elsewhere on the continent, Ebola spillover effects were projected to remain modest and confined mainly to regional transportation hubs such as Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, she said.

Sayeh called for urgent and concerted measures to contain the deadly disease and mitigate its economic impact on the region which has been enjoying robust growth in recent years.

"The impact of the limited growth or lack of growth in these countries is not going to significantly impact the overall growth for the region," said Sayeh, a Monrovia-born economist who served in the country's post-war cabinet as finance minister from 2006 to 2008, before landing on the IMF's Africa director post.