Ethiopia’s economy has expanded by more than five times since the 1990s, when the GDP was only six billion dollars, according to the IMF. In 2010, the country’s Nominal GDP reached 30.9 billion dollars, 96pc higher than that of Djibouti. Although Ethiopia’s economy is the second largest in East Africa, the country has a long way to go to become a middle income country. It remains one of the poorest countries in the world based on its GDP per capita, which is 1,033 dollars less than Djibouti. However, despite significant differences between the two countries’ GDP per capita, the benzene price in both is almost the same.

Ethiopia also has 24.6 million people living below the poverty line of one dollar per day, according to the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) report, published in 2010. In Addis Abeba, this number reaches a little over one million. At the district level, 81,821 out of the total of 240,651 people residing in Kirkos District live below the poverty line.