Economy Of Ethiopia

Economy overview Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on agriculture, which accounts for half of GDP, 60% of exports, and 80% of total employment. The agricultural sector suffers from frequent drought and poor cultivation practices. Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian economy with exports of some $156 million in 2002, but historically low prices have seen many farmers switching to qat to supplement income. The war with Eritrea in 1998-2000 and recurrent drought have buffeted the economy, in particular coffee production. In November 2001 Ethiopia qualified for debt relief from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Under Ethiopia's land tenure system, the government owns all land and provides long-term leases to the tenants; the system continues to hamper growth in the industrial sector as entrepreneurs are unable to use land as collateral for loans. Drought struck again late in 2002, leading to a 2% decline in GDP in 2003. Return to normal weather patterns late in 2003 should help agricultural and GDP growth recover in 2004. The government estimates that annual growth of 7% is needed to reduce poverty.
 
GDP purchasing power parity - $46.81 billion (2004 est.)
 
GDP - real growth rate -3.8% (2004 est.)
 
GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $700 (2004 est.)
 
GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 46%
industry: 12.6%
services: 41.4% (2004 est.)
 
Investment gross fixed 17% of GDP (2004 est.)
 
Population below poverty line 50% (2004 est.)
 
Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: 3%
highest 10%: 33.7% (1995)
 
Distribution of family income - Gini index 40 (1995)
 
Inflation rate consumer prices 17.8% (2004 est.)
 
Labor force NA (2001 est.)
 
Labor force by occupation agriculture and animal husbandry 80%, industry and construction 8%, government and services 12% (1985)
 
Unemployment rate NA (2002)
 
Budget
revenues: $1.813 billion
expenditures: $2.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $788 million (2004 est.)
 
Public debt  
Agriculture products cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, sugarcane, potatoes, qat; hides, cattle, sheep, goats
 
Industries food processing, beverages, textiles, chemicals, metals processing, cement
 
Industrial production growth rate 6.7% (2001 est.)
 
Electricity production 1.713 billion kWh (2001)
 
Electricity production by source
fossil fuel: 1.3%
hydro: 97.6%
other: 1.2% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
 
Electricity consumption 1.594 billion kWh (2001)
 
Electricity exports 0 kWh (2001)
 
Electricity imports 0 kWh (2001)
 
Oil production 0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
 
Oil consumption 23,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
 
Oil exports NA (2001)
 
Oil imports NA (2001)
 
Oil proved reserves 214,000 bbl (1 January 2002)
 
Natural gas production  
Natural gas consumption  
Natural gas exports  
Natural gas imports  
Natural gas proved reserves 12.46 billion cu m (1 January 2002)
 
Current account balance $-408 million (2004 est.)
 
Exports $537 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)
 
Exports commodities coffee, qat, gold, leather products, live animals, oilseeds
 
Exports partners Djibouti 13.4%, Germany 11.4%, Saudi Arabia 6.9%, Japan 6.8%, Italy 6.4%, US 5.1% (2003)
 
Imports $1.964 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
 
Imports commodities food and live animals, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, cereals, textiles
 
Imports partners Saudi Arabia 24.1%, US 17%, China 6.4%, Italy 4.1% (2003)
 
Reserves of foreign exchange gold $956 million (2004 est.)
 
Debt external $2.9 billion (2001 est.)
 
Economic aid recipient $308 million (FY00/01)
 
Currency birr (ETB)
 
Currency code ETB
 
Exchange rates birr per US dollar - NA (2003), 8.5678 (2002), 8.4575 (2001), 8.2173 (2000), 7.9423 (1999)
note: since 24 October 2001 exchange rates are determined on a daily basis via interbank transactions regulated by the Central Bank
 
Fiscal year 8 July - 7 July

 

 

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This information was reproduced in part from the CIA World Fact book.

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