Ethiopia

Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the exception of a short-lived Italian occupation within the capital city area from 1936-41. In 1974, a military junta, the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled since 1930) and established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the regime was finally toppled in 1991 by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A constitution was adopted in 1994, and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in 1995. A border war with Eritrea late in the 1990s ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. In November 2007, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission remotely demarcated the border by geographical coordinates, but final demarcation of the boundary on the ground is currently on hold because of Ethiopian objections to an international commission's finding requiring it to surrender territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Birr (ISO code: ETB)
 * Central bank discount rate: NA%
 * Commercial banks lending rate: 8% (31 December 2008)
 * Stock of money (M1): $4.93 billion (31 December 2008)
 * Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $3.603 billion (31 December 2008)

Notable events:

 * Banking crisis: 1994-1995

Links

 * Ethiopia on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of Ethiopia
 * Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
 * Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
 * BBC country profile