![The National Bank of Ethiopia building in Addis Ababa, April 2008 (Shagada, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]](https://i0.wp.com/mereja.com/index/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/business-nbe-building-20261006100146-92e8.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1)
The National Bank of Ethiopia building in Addis Ababa, April 2008 (Shagada, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]
The Ethiopian Government is aiming for 10.1 percent economic growth this fiscal year and inflation below 10 percent, President Taye Atske-Selassie told a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday.
Opening the session a day after lawmakers reappointed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for a second five-year term, Taye said the plan rests on higher productivity, more domestic revenue, a wider tax base and tighter control of spending, according to Fana and Birr Metrics. He put annual inflation at 13.4 percent. The World Bank put headline inflation at 15.1 percent in August.
Taye set targets of 65 percent electricity access, 85 percent health insurance coverage, 70 percent school feeding and more than 1.6 million foreign tourists. He cited export earnings of $11.2 billion, foreign direct investment of $4.5 billion and manufacturing growth of 15.8 percent as signs of strength, Birr Metrics reported.
The World Bank is more cautious. Its October Macro Poverty Outlook estimated growth of 9.2 percent for the year that ended in July and forecast a slowdown to 7.8 percent, citing spillover from the Middle East conflict. Food and fuel prices pushed inflation up from 9.4 percent in March, the bank said, and the central bank responded by raising its policy rate to 16 percent in July.
Reserves reached $7.1 billion by the end of August, about 2.4 months of imports, and the gap between official and parallel exchange rates narrowed to 13 percent, the World Bank said. It projected poverty at 37.6 percent this year.
Fuel is the most direct link to prices. Brent crude traded near $100 a barrel on Tuesday as Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and fighting around the Bab el-Mandeb unsettled markets, CNBC reported. About 90 percent of Ethiopia’s trade passes through Djibouti, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, and the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said in July that fuel disruptions had pushed inflation back into double digits.
The National Bank of Ethiopia also said on Tuesday it would sell $840 million to banks in six $140 million foreign exchange auctions between October 13 and December 22, according to Birr Metrics and Reuters. Demand has cooled: at the September 23 auction, banks bid $123.49 million against $125 million on offer.
An Ethiopian Economics Association survey released this month found low confidence among economists in official inflation figures and in the central bank’s independence.
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