Ethiopia has adjusted its national economic accounting standards to include emerging industries such as the digital economy, and has now become the fifth largest economy in Africa. Finance Minister Fitzsum Assefa said in an article on the X platform that for the fiscal year ending in July, the country's GDP was equivalent to US$210.7 billion. Using the 2024-25 fiscal year as the new base period, the economy was US$2014 billion, 59% higher than the previous estimate. Fitzsum said that Ethiopia previously used the 2015-16 fiscal year as the accounting base period, and the benchmark “cannot reflect the structural transformation of the economy, the expansion of various industries, and emerging business formats such as digital finance and digital services.” Alexander Wendt, an economist at the Oxford Institute of Economics, said, “However, the unpaid debt, debt repayment costs, and foreign currency financing requirements themselves have not changed.”

Ethiopia has adjusted its national economic accounting standards to include emerging industries such as the digital economy, and has now become the fifth largest economy in Africa. Finance Minister Fitzsum Assefa said in an article on the X platform that for the fiscal year ending in July, the country's GDP was equivalent to US$210.7 billion. Using the 2024-25 fiscal year as the new base period, the economy was US$2014 billion, 59% higher than the previous estimate. Fitzsum said that Ethiopia previously used the 2015-16 fiscal year as the accounting base period, and the benchmark “cannot reflect the structural transformation of the economy, the expansion of various industries, and emerging business formats such as digital finance and digital services.” Alexander Wendt, an economist at the Oxford Institute of Economics, said, “However, the unpaid debt, debt repayment costs, and foreign currency financing requirements themselves have not changed.”