May 7, 2026
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance sees the debt level as “heathy”
Borkena
Toronto – The Ethiopian government this week announced that Ethiopia’s national debt amounts to $51.8 billion dollars.
The Minister for Finance, Ahmed Shide, officially revealed the debt amount during his appearance on Monday at the Ethiopian parliament to present the Ministry’s nine month performance report.
The report was presented to the Budget and Finance Standing Committee.
The amount of internal and external debt is $51.8 billion.
The Ministry provided the breakdown of it. $33.5 billion is external debt while the remaining $18.3 billion is from domestic sources.
The amount of the Federal government external loan amount constitutes $22.1 billion dollars. $11.5 billion is loaned by government development agencies.
From domestic sources, Federal government debt is said to be $17.5 billion dollars. The amount for government enterprises is $0.8 billion dollars.
The Minister attributed government enterprises’ low debt amount to the macro-economic reform it introduced in July 2024. How the reform measure resulted in low debt by government enterprises is unexplained.
On the other hand, Ethio Telecom, despite not mentioning debt, was linking lower revenue to the exchange rate free fall which was related to the macro economic reform measure.
The Minister has also remarked on the amount of debt. He says the amount of debt is “very healthy.”
He also claims that Ethiopia’s capability to pay for its debt has been increasing. A few months ago, he led a delegation to China where he met with Chinese financial officials to negotiate a restructure of debt – something that makes the assertion that Ethiopia’s capability is enhancing.
In his parliamentary appearance, he has also revealed that an agreement has been reached with the United States for a $1billion dollar budgetary support. The government says it will spend it in health, education and agricultural sectors. The agreement is yet to be approved by the parliament. However, since more than 95 percent of the parliament is from the ruling party, getting it approved does not seem to be an issue for the ruling party.
What the United States is getting in return is unspecified. It is public knowledge that the Trump Administration spending on aid is now transactional, and what Ethiopia is giving back is undisclosed.
Meanwhile, the revenue ministry claims that it has collected 449 billion birr more tax compared to the same period as the previous year.
With an estimated population of over 120 million, Ethiopia’s revenue from export is staggering around $10 billion which has been rather projected as an achievement given the country’s history.
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