commodities—food, fuels, capital goods;
partners—USSR, Italy, FRG, Japan, UK, US, France
_#_External debt: $2.6 billion (1988)
_#_Industrial production: growth rate 2.3% (FY89 est.); accounts for 13% of GDP
_#_Electricity: 330,000 kW capacity; 700 million kWh produced, 14 kWh per capita (1989)
_#_Industries: food processing, beverages, textiles, chemicals, metals processing, cement
_#_Agriculture: accounts for 45% of GDP and is the most important sector of the economy even though frequent droughts and poor cultivation practices keep farm output low; famines not uncommon; export crops of coffee and oilseeds grown partly on state farms; estimated 50% of agricultural production at subsistence level; principal crops and livestock—cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseeds, sugarcane, potatoes and other vegetables, hides and skins, cattle, sheep, goats
_#_Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $504 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $3.1 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $8 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $2.0 billion
_#_Currency: birr (plural—birr); 1 birr (Br) = 100 cents
_#_Exchange rates: birr (Br) per US$1—2.0700 (fixed rate)