Economy - overview Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on agriculture, which accounts for half of GDP, 85% of exports, and 80% of total employment. The agricultural sector suffers from frequent drought and poor cultivation practices, and as many as 4.6 million people need food assistance annually. Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian economy with exports of some $260 million in 2000. Other important exports include qat, live animals, hides, and gold. The war with Eritrea in 1999-2000 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. Despite this limitation, strong growth is expected to continue in the near term as good rainfall, the cessation of hostilities, and renewed foreign aid and debt relief push the economy forward.

GDP purchasing power parity - $46 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 7.3% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $700 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 52.3%
industry: 11.1%
services: 36.6% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line 64% (1996)

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) 6.8% (2001 est.)

Labor force NA

Labor force - by occupation agriculture and animal husbandry 80%, government and services 12%, industry and construction 8% (1985)

Unemployment rate NA%

Budget
revenues: $1.8 billion
expenditures: $1.9 billion, including capital expenditures of $600 million (2002 est.)

Industries food processing, beverages, textiles, chemicals, metals processing, cement

Industrial production growth rate 6.7% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production 1.63 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source
fossil fuel: 1.84%
hydro: 98.16%
other: 0% (2000)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption 1.516 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports 0 kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports 0 kWh (2000)

Agriculture - products cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, sugarcane, potatoes, qat; hides, cattle, sheep, goats

Exports $442 million (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Exports - commodities coffee, qat, gold, leather products, oilseeds

Exports - partners Germany 18%, Japan 11%, Djibouti 11%, Saudi Arabia 8% (2000 est.)

Imports $1.54 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)

Imports - commodities food and live animals, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, cereals, textiles

Imports - partners Saudi Arabia 25%, US 9%, Italy 7%, Russia 4% (2000 est.)

Debt - external $5.3 billion (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient $308 million (FY00/01)

Currency birr (ETB)

Currency code ETB

Exchange rates birr per US dollar (end of period) - 8.455 (December 2001), 8.3140 (December 2000), 8.3140 (2000), 8.1340 (1999), 7.5030 (1998), 6.8640 (1997)
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

NOTE: The information regarding Ethiopia on this page is re-published from the 2002 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Ethiopia Economy 2002 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Ethiopia Economy 2002 should be addressed to the CIA.