Authorities Move to Keep Holiday Inflation At Bay

Sep 2 , 2023


The Addis Abeba City Administration has allocated the 1.4 billion Br revolving fund to the City Cooperatives Agency to mitigate the impact of inflation during the holiday season. A concomitant effort by the Ministry of Trade & Regional Integration has also formalised 170 markets, creating direct linkages with producers in regional states. While holiday season price hikes are common, the combination of conflict and disrupted supply chains from regional states have uniquely cast unfavourable clouds this year. State Minister Teshale Belhu held a briefing at the Ministry's headquarters last week in which he expressed full confidence that their efforts would result in sufficient supply during holiday shopping. The Minister attributed the price increments to illicit traders and security prices. Ethiopian Trade Works Corporation has partnered with the Ethiopian Industrial Inputs Development Enterprise to import 27.6 million litres of palm oil with prices ranging between 324 Br for three litres and 2,064 Br for 20ltr. Teshale indicated that millions of eggs will be disseminated at less than 10 Br a price as part of the Ministry's efforts to mitigate the price surge.


Radar

Central Bank's Auction Sends Dollar Soaring to 135 Br

A dollar value against the Birr exceeds 135 during an auction the Central Bank held last week, offering 60 million dollars. Close to 27 banks made their bid where the weighted average was 135.61 Br for a dollar. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) announced the results of the special foreign exchange auction, the second since monetary authorities floated the forex regime in early August last year. Last week's result reflects a weaker Birr than in the first when the average rate was 107.9 Br....


Radar

Ethio Telecom Bids to Dominate Ethiopia's Digital Future

An array of services from digital livestock tracking, push-to-talk/video communications to cloud-based banking, an education management system (EMS), and enterprise resource Planning (ERP) are available from the state-owned Ethio telecom. Ethio telecom has introduced seven new cloud-based digital services last week at the Skylight Hotel, on Africa Avenue (Bole Road), pledging to transform business operations, financial services, and education management. The company said that these solutions...


Radar

Addis International Convention Centre Inaugurates

The much-anticipated Addis International Convention Centre, spanning 40 hectares, was officially inaugurated last week. It is set to become the country's largest conference venue, designed to host both national and international events. The centre features two large halls, each accommodating 3,000 to 4,000 people. It also includes eight smaller meeting rooms, bringing its total capacity to 10,000 attendees. Two hotels, with a combined 1,000-bed capacity, will serve both local and internationa...