Ethiopia’s Real GDP growth

African countries have scored remarkable economic growth this decade. During this time, the growth for the continent as a whole has been more than 5%. This has led people to speculate that, finally, some fundamental change is taking place in Africa. "For the first time in almost 30 years, we've seen a large number of African countries that have begun to show sustained economic growth at rates that are similar to those in the rest of the developing world and actually today exceed the rate of growth in most of the advanced economies," writes John Page, World Bank's chief economist for Africa.

Ethiopia has also had its share of economic growth over this decade, particularly during the latter half, 2003-2008. The solid line in this chart shows the Real GDP growth for Ethiopia (i.e., GDP growth adjusted for price changes). For the five year period between 2003 and 2008, the Ethiopian economy grew between 5 and 12%.

Also shown in the chart is the GDP Per Capita for Ethiopia, as well as the average GDP Per Capita for East Africa and Africa as a whole. Adjusted for inflation, Ethiopia’s GDP Per Capita grew from US$120 in 2000/2001 to US$154 in 2008/2009. This is based on prices that prevailed in year 2000. Ethiopia’s GDP Per Capita for 2008 (in 2008 US$) is estimated to be about US$850 (although data varies depending on the source). This means much of the increase in Per Capita GDP has been due to inflation.

Finally, the data shows Ethiopia’s Per Capita GDP is still much lower than both the Per Capita GDP averages for East Africa and Africa as a whole – less than 50% the average for East Africa and less than 20% the average for Africa.

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