FORTUNE+ VIDEO SPONSORED CONTENTS ADVERTORIALS FORTUNE AUDIO Fortune Careers TRADE AFRICA Election 2026 New TIME REMAINING UNTIL ETHIOPIA’S NATIONAL ELECTION 0Days 0Hours 0Minutes 0Seconds

Fortune Logo

Inflatable decorations, bright lights and New Year paraphernalia are back in Mesqel Square as the holiday fair was opened at Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre. Crowds, about 3,000 a day, and expected to be triple as the Ethiopian New Year approaches next week, made their way to the Exhibition Centre to shop, eat, drink and listen to music. Inside were vendors that paid at least 7,000 Br for a square metre to the Exhibition Centre & Market Development Enterprise, which has organised the fair. The vendors, about a third of them foreign, offer consumer goods from furniture to spices and herbs.


The Exhibition Centre is not the only place where a fair is taking place. Millennium Hall is at the other end of Africa Avenue, which has returned to hosting a holiday exhibition for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Less popular than the veteran Exhibition Centre and less expensive, it is being organised by Century Promotion in five pavilions housing over 100 booths.


For vendors participating in the fairs, the return on investment is divergent. Vendors selling fast-moving consumables, especially those considered necessities, like edible oil, are seeing good business. Purchases of goods consumers can do without are not having a great time. This reflects the country's macroeconomic condition, where inflation is high and business activities are slow.


Runaway inflation, which has shown little sign of slowing down, surpassed the 30pc mark in August last year.  It has not slowed down since. The latest figure is no different. Food inflation stands at 35pc with prices for most cereals continuing to rise. Non-food inflation came in at a little over 30pc. Holidays may be a time of festivities, but they are not a shield against high prices.


You can read the full story    here    


PUBLISHED ON Sep 03,2022 [ VOL 23 , NO 1166]

[ratemypost]


Related Posts

[ssba-buttons]

Put your comments here

N.B: A submit button will appear once you fill out all the required fields.

Editors' Pick

Exclusive Interviews

State Enterprises from Oracles to Apprentices

Dec 22 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW

Charged with transforming colossal state-owned enterprises into modern and competitiv...

Agenda

Rising Costs, Inflation Threaten Insurance Industry

Aug 18 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO

Although predictable Yonas Zerihun's job in the ride-hailing service is not immune to...

Agenda

BREWING DISCONTENT

Jul 28 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW

Unhabitual, perhaps too many, Samuel Gebreyohannes, 38, used to occasionally enjoy a couple of beers at breakfast. However, he recently swit...

Fortune News

Electric Vehicle Push Leaves Investors in the Lurch

Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO

Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transporting commodities, and f...

Commentaries

The Political Class Bet on Mega-projects, Pushed State Banks to the Brink

Ethiopia's developmental state experiment was less a model of economic discipline tha...

Taking Women Farmers Seriously

As the war in Iran disrupts fertiliser supplies and undermines food security around the world, the need t...

Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the me...

When the country’s most. . .

When the country's most senior diplomats and envoys return back to their posts after two-week debriefings, they leave behind a point or two...

Editorial

Mistaking Development Theatre for Public Trust Has a Cost

May 30 , 2026

Tomorrow, millions of Ethiopians are expected to vote in the seventh national electio...

Tax Push Tests How Much Pain Taxpayers Can Bear

May 23 , 2026

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team has spent weeks in Addis Abeba conducting t...

T-Bills Trap Begins in the Federal Government's Own Budget

May 16 , 2026

The federal budget tells a troubling story about inflation, debt and reform. The prob...

Every Encounter with the State Should Not Become an Invoice

May 9 , 2026

The Ethiopian state appears to have discovered a fiscal instrument that is politicall...

Gallery

Parliament Approves New Cabinet Members

Oct 6 , 2021

Parliament Approves New Cabinet, Incorporates Opposition Leaders Lawmakers have approved today the nominations of 22 ministers, including three opposition leaders. Two MPs have voted against, while 12 abstained...

2020 in Posterity

Jan 5 , 2021

TIGRAY VOTES DESPITE "NULL & VOID" THREAT

Sep 9 , 2020

IN-PICTURE: LAUREATE'S RECEPTION  

Dec 14 , 2019

PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) at a Gala Dinner Called for the Awarding of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

May 6 , 2019

Faces, Voices of Addis Abeba

Apr 26 , 2019

Sunday With Eden

When Ordinary Lives Rewrite Poverty

There are moments in life that leave people changed forever. A few days ago, I attended a conference at a religious inst...

A Ball, A Father, A Life-time of Memory

Football was never merely a game in our household. It was ritual, language and affect...

Life Matters

Beyond the Scoreline, How Foreign Football Becomes Local Identity

The recent celebrations in Addis Abeba following Arsenal's success were, to put it bl...

When Problem-Solving Fails Because the Shape Looks Different

We like to think of ourselves as pattern-recognition machines. From the moment the da...