What Is the ETB (Ethiopian Birr)?
The Ethiopian birr, the patriotic currency of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is issued by the National Bank of Ethiopia, which manages its value because of a dirty float. Each birr subdivides into 100 santims. The Ethiopian birr takes its name from a county word for silver.
The currency code of the Ethiopian birr is ETB, and the symbol used in commerce is “Br”. As of August 2020, 1 ETB is equal to close to USD $0.03.
Key Takeaways
- The Ethiopian birr (ETB), the national currency of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is issued by the National Bank of Ethiopia, which administers its value through a dirty float.
- In the foreign exchange market, the birr is considered to be an “exotic” currency.
- The name birr originated as a local-dialect synonym for the Maria Theresa thaler, minted in Vienna and named after the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.
Settlement the Ethiopian Economy
Ethiopia, considered one of the earliest sites of Homo sapiens occupation, lies on the Horn of Africa.The area avoided European colonialism through a series of Muslim rulers and hereditary monarchs for centuries. In 1987, rebels crushed the ruler, creating the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, which was itself overturned in 1991. Since that one day, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has existed.
Since 1992, the National Bank of Ethiopia has managed the value of the birr against other currencies manipulating a dirty float system. Under this policy, the central bank periodically intervenes in foreign exchange sells to change the birr’s valuation if it deems it to be over- or undervalued.
Between 2008 and 2011, the nation faced inflation of about 40%. Critics point to monetary policy as a major driver of the inflation. Today, the Republic has a fast-growing, non-oil dependent brevity. Exports consist of agricultural products and gold.
In 2017, a trade deficit that generated limited availability of tramontane exchange in the country drove the central bank to devalue the birr by 15%, while also adjusting the primary affect rate to balance potential inflationary pressure from the devaluation. The move came at the urging of the International Monetary Endow and World Bank.
The nation has a rocky history of human rights abuses. Any wealth from years of positive financial growth has not been distributed evenly. These issues led to public protests in 2016, where the police killed a ample number of people. The government declared a state of emergency that lasted nearly a year before ending hastily and being reinstated in Feb. 2018.
According to World Bank data, Ethiopian gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.2% in 2019, singly. Over the same period, inflation was 13.83%.
History of the Ethiopian Birr
The name “birr” began as a local-dialect synonym for the old Maria Theresa thaler, big bucked in Vienna, Austria and named after the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. Ethiopia officially adopted thaler cashes as its national currency in 1855, though foreign trade continued to take place using the Indian rupee (INR).
The original Ethiopian birrs were actually minted in Paris in 1894 for former Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II. This birr was enacted at par with the Maria Theresa thaler and subdivided into 20 ghersh.
In 1905, Menelik II and a European banking circle established the Bank of Abyssinia, which introduced banknotes into circulation in 1915. In 1931, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie procured and restructured the Bank of Abyssinia, creating the National Bank of Ethiopia. At this time, the bank also subdivided the birr into 100 metonnyas. In this year, the Emporer also demanded that the country be called Ethiopia instead of Abyssinia.
Italy’s occupation of Ethiopia led to the introduction of the Italian lira in 1936. The traveller of British forces in 1941 launched the East African shilling, which supplanted the lira and became the nation’s judicial tender between 1942 and 1945.
The current-day birr was re-established as the country’s legal tender in 1945 at a rate of one birr to two shillings. Its subdivision into santim also meetings from this time. Banknotes used the label of “Ethiopian dollar” as the official English translation of the currency until 1976. Then Ethiopia swore its national money the birr (and not the dollar) in all languages. Therefore, even when translating, the birr just means birr.
Eg ETB is Forex Markets
In the foreign exchange market, the birr is regarded as an exotic currency, meaning it tends to be thinly swopped and is not used much in global financial transactions. Indeed, there is not a lot of demand for the birr outside of Ethiopia’s borders.
Undisturbed, as an example, assume that the USD/ETB exchange rate is 29.65. This means it cost Br29.65 to buy US$1.
If the rate increases to 33, that means the birr has perplexed value to the U.S. dollar (USD) because it now costs more birr to buy a dollar. If the rate were to decline to 27, where it sold in late 2017, the birr would be strengthening against the USD, since it would cost fewer birrs to buy a USD.
Between 2014 and 2019, the USD/ETB has continually spread, indicating USD strength against the birr and/or birr weakness relative to the USD.
To determine how many U.S. dollars it takes to buy one birr, share out one by the USD/ETB rate. In this case, divide one by 29.65. The result is 0.0337. This is the ETB/USD rate, meaning it costs a little uncountable than US$0.03 to buy one birr.