Economy - overview:
Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on agriculture, accounting 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, and in December 2005 the International Monetary Fund voted to forgive Ethiopia's debt to the body. 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. Normal weather patterns late in 2003 helped agricultural and GDP growth recover in 2004-05.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$60.34 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
$8.854 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 40.1%
industry: 12.7%
services: 47.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
NA

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 80%
industry: 8%
services: 12% (1985)

Unemployment rate:
NA%

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:
30 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
20.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $2.338 billion
expenditures: $2.88 billion; including capital expenditures of $788 million (2005 est.)

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

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

Industrial production growth rate:
6.7% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production:
2.058 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - consumption:
1.914 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
27,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
NA bbl/day

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

Natural gas - production:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

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

Current account balance:
-$1.023 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
$612 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

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

Exports - partners:
Djibouti 13.3%, Germany 10%, Japan 8.4%, Saudi Arabia 5.6%, US 5.2%, UAE 5%, Italy 4.6% (2004)

Imports:
$2.722 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

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

Imports - partners:
Saudi Arabia 25.3%, US 15.8%, China 6.6% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$1.192 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
$2.9 billion (2001 est.)

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

Currency (code):
birr (ETB)

Exchange rates:
birr per US dollar - 8.68 (2005), 8.6356 (2004), 8.5997 (2003), 8.5678 (2002), 8.4575 (2001)
note: since 24 October 2001 exchange rates are determined on a daily basis via interbank transactions regulated by the Central Bank