Regulatory Alerts2024-06-09
National Bank of Ethiopia Quarterly Bulletin Fourth Quarter 2023/24
The National Bank of Ethiopia issued its Fourth Quarter 2023/24 Quarterly Bulletin to report comprehensive macroeconomic and social indicators, highlighting a headline inflation rate that decreased to 2.7 percent and broad money supply (M2) that reached Birr 2.48 trillion with 14.1 percent annual growth. The report details a banking sector expansion to 32 institutions and 12,426 branches alongside negative real interest rates driven by a 14.75 percent lending rate, while the current account deficit widened to USD 1.1 billion primarily due to a 30.8 percent increase in the trade deficit despite robust export growth in coffee, gold, and meat. Federal government fiscal operations recorded a Birr 70.4 billion deficit, and petroleum import volumes declined by 7.2 percent annually even as total import value rose due to higher global oil prices, underscoring the central bank’s tight monetary policy and ongoing exchange rate depreciation of 5.1 percent against the US dollar.