The amount of fuel import bills during the first nine months of the current Ethiopian fiscal year surpassed export earnings secured over the same period, it was learnt by The Reporter.
The cost of fuel import has been a major element offsetting gains in the export sector, where it has been consuming up to 80 percent of the foreign currency secured from international trade. For the first time over the last decades, however, import bills have even exceeded export earnings this year.
During the reported nine months, the country’s foreign export earned slightly over USD one billion, equal to 9.46 billion birr as per yesterday’s bank exchange rate, while import bills over the same period amounted to 10, 078,000,000 birr.
The volume of fuel imports during the first nine months of the fiscal year registered a 10 percent increase against that of the same period last year, while the bills spiked by a staggering 67 percent. During the first nine months of the previous year, fuel imports stood at six billion birr, over four billion birr lower than that of the reported first nine months of this fiscal year, obviously owing to world oil price hikes.
Although export earnings were said to grow by about 30 percent, the rate at which fuel import bills increased has offset the gains. With world oil price hike continuing unabated, fuel import bills for the current fiscal year are expected to hit well over the amount of export earnings expected to be secured during the same period.
The country’s fuel consumption during the stated first nine months reached 1.37 million tonnes. The fuels, being supplied by the Saudi-based oil company, Berki International, which won consecutive bids for this year’s consumption, includes gas oil, kerosene, jet fuel, gasoline, light and heavy fuel oils.
The export earnings secured during the first nine months under review hit only 58 percent of the target for the year, although the amount registered topped that of the same period of the previous year by 31.2 percent. Coffee, flower, pulses, gold, and textile exports were amongst those export items that registered significant growth in terms of foreign currency they fetched.
