The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), in its six-month snapshot on monetary and external sector developments, reports that inflation has dropped to 15.5pc, the lowest in five years and a 13.9pc decline from last year’s 29.4pc rate. Headline inflation stood at 34.5pc during the same period in 2022. The report also shows a sharp decline in food inflation, which fell by 16.6pc, from 32.3pc in January 2024 to 15.7pc in January 2025. Non-food inflation dropped by 10.2pc, from 25.3pc last year to 15.1pc this year. Exports grew by 104.3pc in the 2023/24 fiscal year. Ethiopia generated 1.6 billion dollars in 2022/23 but saw an impressive jump to 3.28 billion dollars in 2023/24. However, gold and coffee seem to have mainly contributed to the sharp increase in export. Gold exports surged by 735.2pc, rising from 161 million dollars in 2023 to 1.36 billion dollars in 2024. Coffee exports also more than doubled, increasing by 60pc from 574 million dollars last year. Despite the improvement in exports, the government’s import-substitution initiative fell short of its goals. Imports decreased by only four percent, from 8.99 billion dollars in 2023 to 8.63 billion dollars in 2024. Meanwhile, daily average foreign currency sales by banks saw sharp increases growing from 28.6 million dollars in December 2023 to 42.9 million dollars in December 2024.
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