The African investment environment is at its worst in years

Ethiopia has long benefited from close ties to the West, China and emerging powers. In 2004 Western and multilateral creditors wrote off more than $3bn of its debts. Since 2000 it has received more loans from China than any other African country except Angola. In 2014 it borrowed on international capital markets for the first time. Asian manufacturers set up factories in industrial parks with the aim of using Ethiopia’s duty-free access to Western markets. More recently it has received billions of dollars in investment from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Though the atrocious civil war in Tigray caused the West to suspend some ties, there was a reset in 2024, with the imf and World Bank announcing new loans last July.