Finance & economics | Lost promise

The violence in Ethiopia imperils an impressive growth record

Of all the countries in Africa, it came closest to mimicking the Chinese model

ONE OF THE most extraordinary growth records over the past two decades was to be found, perhaps surprisingly, in the horn of Africa. Real GDP per person in Ethiopia, the second-most-populous country in Africa, rose by an average annual rate of 9.3% from 1999 to 2019, just 0.4 percentage points less than China’s pace of growth. Now a year-long war between Ethiopia’s government and forces led by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) threatens to spill into the capital city, wreak humanitarian disaster and wipe away those economic gains.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Lost promise”

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