Loening, Josef L.; Durevall, Dick; Birru, Yohannes A.
Description:
Ethiopia has experienced a historically
unprecedented increase in inflation, mainly driven by cereal
price inflation, which is among the highest in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Using monthly data from the past decade, the authors
estimate error correction models to identify the relative
importance of several factors contributing to overall
inflation and its three major components, cereal prices,
food prices, and non-food prices. The main finding is that,
in a longer perspective, over three to four years, the main
factors that determine domestic food and non-food prices are
the exchange rate and international food and goods prices.
In the short run, agricultural supply shocks and inflation
inertia strongly affect domestic inflation, causing large
deviations from long-run price trends. Money supply growth
does affect food price inflation in the short run, although
the money stock itself does not seem to drive inflation. The
results suggest the need for a multi-pronged approach to
fight inflation. Forecast scenarios suggest monetary and
exchange rate policies need to take into account cereal
production, which is among the key determinants of
inflation, assuming a decline in global commodity prices.
Implementation of successful policies will be contingent on
the availability of foreign exchange and the performance of agriculture.