Skip to main content
HIGHLIGHTS
- The Birr has lost 5% of its value on the official market over the last year, and 16% in the parallel market as of March 2024. Due to the increasing divergence of the exchange rates gap between the official and the parallel markets, remittances are increasingly diverting from official to unofficial channels.
- The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) intends to achieve an exchange rate that avoids major or protracted disparities in the parallel market and raise the currency reserve from the current 0.7 months to 1 month towards the end of the current fiscal year and to 2 months by June 2025.
- If the Government decides to devalue the Birr in the official market as part of its plan to achieve internal and external currency stability, the costs of imported goods used in production processes (such as fertilizers and fuel) will rise, which consequently pushes the cost of living upwards and poor households will be disproportionately affected.
