Ethiopia recorded export earnings of 11.2 billion US dollars in its latest fiscal year — an unprecedented level of revenue that the government attributes to sweeping reforms to its foreign-exchange regime and broader economic restructuring.
President Taye Atske Selassie disclosed the figures on Tuesday while addressing a joint opening session of the House of Peoples’ Representatives and the House of Federation, Ethiopia’s bicameral parliament, where he outlined the government’s economic, political, and social priorities for the new fiscal year.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows reached 4.5 billion US dollars over the same period, Taye said, while the manufacturing sector expanded by 15.8 percent. Total domestic revenue came in at nearly 1.98 trillion birr, and credit supplied to the economy rose to 1.3 trillion birr.
The president presented the results as evidence that the economy had continued to expand despite domestic and external pressures — a notable claim for a country that has navigated internal conflict, regional instability, and the aftershocks of global commodity and currency volatility in recent years.
Agriculture drives the headline numbers
Agriculture emerged as a central pillar of the growth story. Annual crop production rose from around 335 million quintals seven years ago to 1.3 billion quintals in the 2025/26 fiscal year — a near-fourfold increase that the government cited as a major driver of export revenue growth, though no specific export sectors or commodities were named in the address.
Ethiopia is one of Africa’s largest agricultural economies, with coffee, sesame, and cut flowers among its historically significant export earners. The scale of the crop production increase suggests productivity gains across a broad base of the sector rather than a single commodity surge.
Inflation still a concern, but easing
Meanwhile, inflation declined to 13.4 percent as of May 2026, down from higher levels in preceding periods. The government has set a target of bringing the rate into single digits during the current fiscal year — an ambition that will test the durability of the macroeconomic stabilisation measures introduced alongside the foreign-exchange reforms.
Ethiopia liberalised its foreign-exchange market in 2024, allowing the birr to trade at market-determined rates after decades of a managed peg. The move was a condition of International Monetary Fund support and was designed to close the gap between the official and parallel exchange rates, attract foreign investment, and boost export competitiveness.
The record export figure and the rise in FDI suggest those reforms are beginning to produce measurable results, though inflation remaining above 13 percent indicates that the adjustment process is not yet complete.
Taye’s address came a day after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was reappointed for another term as Ethiopia entered a new parliamentary cycle. The administration said it would seek to build on current gains by expanding exports, improving productivity, attracting additional foreign investment, and strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation.
For investors and trade partners engaged across East Africa, Ethiopia’s trajectory carries regional weight: as the continent’s second most populous country and a major logistics and manufacturing hub, its economic performance has downstream implications for supply chains, regional trade flows, and investment appetite across the Horn of Africa.
businessfront.com