Ethiopia Economy
Economy - overviewEthiopia'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 (2003 est.)
GDP - real growth rate
-3.8% (2003 est.)
GDP - per capita
purchasing power parity - $700 (2003 est.)
GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 46%
industry: 12.6%
services: 41.4% (2003 est.)
Investment
17% of GDP (2003)
Population below poverty line
50% (2003 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
17.8% (2003 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 (2003 est.)
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 - 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 - proved reserves
12.46 billion cu m (1 January 2002)
Current account balance
$-408 million (2003)
Exports
$537 million f.o.b. (2003 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 (2003)
Debt - external
$2.9 billion (2001 est.)
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
