Ethiopia Economy - 2004

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 - $48.47 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
-2% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $700 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 52.3%
industry: 11.1%
services: 36.5% (2002 est.)

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 (consumer prices):
12.6% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
NA (2001 est.)

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

Unemployment rate:
NA% (2002)

Budget:
revenues: $1.4 billion
expenditures: $2.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $788 million (FY02/03 est.)

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

Oil - imports:
NA

Oil - proved reserves:
214,000 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
12.46 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

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

Exports:
$537 million f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities:
coffee, qat, gold, leather products, live animals, oilseeds

Exports - partners:
UK 16.5%, Djibouti 11.1%, Germany 7.5%, Italy 7.3%, Japan 6.8%, Saudi Arabia 6.6%, US 4.5% (2002)

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 27.9%, Switzerland 6.3%, China 5.9%, Italy 5.7%, India 4.6%, Germany 4% (2002)

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), 8.57 (2002), 8.46 (2001), 8.22 (2000), 7.94 (1999)
note: since 24 October 2001 exchange rates are determined on a daily basis via interbank transactions regulated by the Central Bank