Federal authorities have banned the importation of goods in an unprecedented move not seen in three decades. However, they can only save a little over 600 million dollars on a three-year average, constituting a mere five percent of the total imports bill.

A State Minister for Finance, Semereta Sewasew, issued an edict last week listing several items under 38 categories not to be allowed for imports. The State Minister justified the move for the need to allocate foreign currency to essential food items, medicines and inputs used to add value by domestic manufacturers.

The Ministry requested central bank officials to follow up on the measure Semereta attributed to a “decision made by the macroeconomic committee” chaired by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD). Subsequently, the central bank instructed commercial bank on Friday not to open letters of credit to import goods from liquors, cigarettes, and perfumes to soaps, packed foods and drinks, home and office furniture, vehicles and bicycles.

The ban has been issued indefinitely.

International remittance grew to over five billion dollars, and export revenues exceed four billion dollars at an all-time high. While the value of exports going up and the import bill declined last year by 2.5 billion dollars from 13.5 billion dollars in 2018, forex inflow from foreign direct investment and official loans and grants plunged. Ethiopia received only 290 million dollars in loans from bilateral and multilateral creditors this year, a significant drop from the 4.7 billion dollars it had received four years ago.

However, the authorities were forced to take such unusual measures in response to the pressure on the balance of payments. Ethiopia’s foreign exchange reserve is at an all-time low, sufficient to cover imports for 0.7 months (three weeks), according to data released by the IMF last week. The Fund project the reserve will drop to 0.6 months next year, indicating that Ethiopia has lower than one billion dollars in its reserves.

Economic pundits see the measure as a knee-jerk response which is too little to change the bigger issue.

“It’s symbolic,” said a macroeconomist who had worked for the federal government for several years.

The data appear to vindicate him. The three-year average annual expenditure for the goods State Minister listed reaches 600 million dollars against 12.6 billion dollars in imports bills. Ethiopia spent 37.5 billion dollars to pay for its imports in the three years since 2018; all the goods banned from import were worth 1.8 billion dollars, around five percent.

The reaction to this measure is mixed-from consumers’ anxiety that it will fuel inflation to importers’ hope the ban will be lifted in the shortest time. Experts advise monetary policy response and the government to reinforce import substitution instead.

Biniam Endale is a general manager of Wiminar Trading, a perfumes importer. He understands the rationale for the ban as an appropriate response to stabilise the forex crisis. He believes importers are part of Ethiopia’s society and should understand the economic challenges.

“I hope it will serve for a short period,” he told Fortune. “But, if it takes longer, we may find ways to focus our business on exporting local products.”

Biniam’s voice of sympathy to the officials and understanding of this action is shared by another importer, Alemayehu Mebratu.

Alemayehu manages 4Cousins Trading Plc, which imports foodstuff.