Economy

Budget Shortfall, Financial Strife Puts Ethiopian Social Services in Peril

Budget Shortfall, Financial Strife Puts Ethiopian Social Services in Peril

The House of Peoples Representatives recently approved a budget of 971 billion birr for the just started budget year (2024/25). Capital expenditure, as usual, saw a meager increase, while recurrent expenses, received the lion's share. Support for achieving Sustainable Development Goals, appears stagnant from last year’s budget. The shift in priorities comes alongside a continued high military budget and a...

Will Special Economic Zones Make a Difference?

Will Special Economic Zones Make a Difference?

Six years of pronounced decline in investment attractiveness due to political unrest and other economic factors has led the federal government to bet big on a new approach: Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The authorities hope to see the initiative integrate various sectors, rather than the sole focus on manufacturing that was the hallmark of the preceding industrial park era, and...

Ethiopia’s Coal Crusade: Import Dependence as Quality Hurdles Remain Unaddressed

Ethiopia’s Coal Crusade: Import Dependence as Quality Hurdles Remain Unaddressed

In a bid to alleviate its dwindling foreign currency reserves, the Ethiopian government has implemented a series of measures, including expanding restrictions on non-essential imports to even non-luxury items such as fuel-powered vehicles. This shift towards import substitution not only aims to foster long-term domestic industry development but also offers a short and medium-term solution to the country's two-pronged foreign...

Moon walking Progress of Ethiopian FDI

Moon walking Progress of Ethiopian FDI

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Ethiopia is the victim of marked decline, as consistent and noteworthy growth in the five years leading up to 2017 has since been replaced by substantial contraction. While the total number of FDI projects remains relatively stable, there is a pointed drop in the number of projects that make it into implementation....

Ethiopia’s Unfulfilled Industrial Dreams: will new manufacturing policy help?

Ethiopia’s Unfulfilled Industrial Dreams: will new manufacturing policy help?

More than two decades of significant investment and policy focus have little to show for aspirations to make Ethiopia into ‘Africa’s manufacturing powerhouse,’ and the sector’s ability to drive structural economic transformation remains a specter. Development policies emphasizing labor-intensive industries with strong economic linkages, utilizing agricultural inputs, fostering export orientation, import substitution, and rapid technological transfer have hardly enabled the...

Struggling to cope with galloping inflation

Struggling to cope with galloping inflation

The family of Abebu Tadele is one of those that belong to the middle-class households in the perspective of the Ethiopian economy.  They own a small restaurant, and she also makes 14,000 ETB a month working as a cashier at Bole Medhanialem Church.  Despite having such a variety of income-generating options available, Abebu is suffering greatly from the nation's current,...

The “Made in Ethiopia” challenge

The “Made in Ethiopia” challenge

Over 4,500 busy hands make uniforms in Adama Industrial Park for Ethiopian security personnel. They fashion military uniforms, raincoats and accessories for the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), federal police, prison guards and police forces. Antex, a giant in Chinese fashion manufacturing, runs seven sheds within the park, becoming a go-to contractor for government orders. The company once exported apparel...

Coping with catastrophic plagues

Coping with catastrophic plagues

While the whole world struggles to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, Ethiopia is facing several other disasters on multiple fronts. Long before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic, Ethiopia was facing the disastrous impacts of desert locust. As if it was not enough to be overwhelmed by the blowing impacts of coronavirus, the desert locust coupled with coronavirus now has been...

Running Against the Wind

Ethiopian Oscar Contender ‘Running Against the Wind’ to Hit Cannes Virtual Market

French sales group Wide Management has picked up worldwide rights, outside of Ethiopia, for Jan Philipp Weyl's coming-of-age drama Running Against the Wind. The feature, which was Ethiopia's official entry for the best international film Oscar, will be presented to buyers next month at Cannes' virtual film market, the Marché du Film Online. The film follows two friends growing up in...

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