Continuing its decline, Ethiopia’s export income for the first nine months of the fiscal year started July 8, 2018, goes down by about 9 percent compared to same time last fiscal year.
From July 2019 to March 2019, Ethiopia has earned $1.9 billion from export. Last year same period the country exported worth $2.09 billion. The plan by the government for the first nine months of this fiscal year was to earn $3.10 billion. But it has only achieved about 61 percent of its target, according to Wondimu Filate, Communications Affairs head at the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Ethiopia.
On the contrary Ethiopia’s import bill has been going up over the past years, surpassing $17 billion last year.
Mr. Wondimu stated that Ethiopia’s reliance on raw agricultural products export, which are vulnerable to global market fluctuations have contributed to the decline of export income.
Flower export generated $169.52 million for the country between July 2018 and March 2019.