Ethiopia sees stable macro economy

Ethiopia has become one of the African countries having stable economy, a government official said Wednesday.

Ethiopia's inflation is at a low level. In five successive years, Ethiopia has minimized to 3.6 percent annual price hike, compared to the 14.7 percent and 5.6 percent that for sub-Sahara African and eastern African countries respectively, said Teklewold Atinafu, governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, the country's central bank.

He said the country's foreign exchange rate was stable, adding that the Ethiopian birr's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar over the past five years fell on average by less than 1 percent.

Commercial banks currently have sufficient capacity to meet the demand of foreign currency in connection with import trade, said the governor.

Ethiopia's current foreign currency reserve amounts to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars that can cover the country's import trade for three months, he said.

Teklewold said the stated amount of reserve does not include the reserve at the nine government and private banks in the country

He said Ethiopia has been exerting considerable efforts to stabilize the country's economy. The efforts included following up foreign exchange trade, supplying foreign currency and rectifying incompatibility of demand and supply.

Source: Xinhua