1. Country background

There are six major ethnic groups in

essentially State owned and operated

Ethiopia, each with its own language.

economy, and began to rebuild the

The official language of Ethiopia is

institutions and infrastructure needed

Amharic. However up to 286 different

to lead the country's development.

dialects are spoken in the country and

Since then, the country has

there are 25 official languages of

undertaken a programme of economic

instruction.

reform, aiming to stabilize and

liberalize markets, and the Ethiopian

The largest city is the capital, Addis

Investment Authority and the

Abeba, with a population of

Ethiopian Privatization Agency have

2.5 million, followed by Dire Dawa,

been established. In the same year,

with 0.23 million. The majority of the

the Government started selling State 

population, around 83 per cent, lives

owned enterprises, including the

in rural areas. There are about

power supply company. Ethiopia

12 million households in the country,

issued new laws opening banking and

with the average household consisting

insurance to the domestic private

of 5 people.

sector and most State owned retail

shops, hotels, and restaurants are

Ethiopia has a young population, with

now private. To date, about

only 2.9 per cent of the total over

180 government entities have been

65 years of age and about 45 per cent

privatized.

under 15. This is partly due to a female

fertility rate of 6.8 per cent and an

Ethiopia's gross domestic product

estimated life expectancy of just 43 

(GDP) in 1999 stood at around

45 years (see Table 1).

USD 6.5 billion, corresponding to

about USD 620 per capita (in

1.3

Economy

purchasing power parities), ranking it

as one of the poorest countries in the

On 28 May, 1991, the Transitional

world. The Ethiopian economy is

Government of Ethiopia took over an

heavily dependent on agriculture,

Table 2: GDP per capita in PPP$ (selected African countries)

Countries

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

Botswana

5'843

6'189

6'554

6'569

6'872

Ghana

1'710

1'767

1'792

1'808

1'881

The Gambia

1'451

1'462

1'492

1'497

1'580

Central African Republic

1'128

1'076

1'106

1'125

1'166

Kenya

1'027

1'046

1'037

1'010

1'022

Uganda

999

1'069

1'081

1'094

1'167

Burkina Faso

836

875

896

916

965

Madagascar

801

793

786

776

799

Eritrea

787

825

822

880

881

Zambia

754

788

784

753

756

Rwanda

736

833

799

837

885

Mali

678

692

723

719

753

Mozambique

658

682

733

796

861

Ethiopia

563

610

630

595

628

Malawi

546

568

574

570

586

Tanzania

472

484

484

482

501

Source: World Development Indicators, World Bank.

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