Ethiopia rebases GDP to include digital financial services

The Ethiopian government updated its national accounts to include digital financial services and other technology-driven activities in official economic measurements.

This revision follows a rebasing exercise that shifted the reference year from 2015/16 to 2024/25. The government received technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund to complete this update. The change resulted in a higher reported gross domestic product for the 2024/25 financial year, which reached 24.03 trillion birr.

This figure is much higher than the 15.09 trillion birr reported under the old statistical series. Preliminary figures for the 2025/26 period show a further increase to 31.86 trillion birr. The new methodology captures sectors that were previously underrepresented, such as ride-hailing platforms, large-scale solar projects, informal manufacturing, and artisanal mining. Ethio Telecom is a primary driver of this shift through its Telebirr mobile money platform.

The company reported that its Telebirr platform processed 2.61 billion transactions worth 4.19 trillion birr during the 2025/26 financial year. The platform also issued digital loans worth 19.51 billion birr to over 5.6 million customers. These results support the Digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy, which aims for the digital sector to contribute 12% to the national GDP by the end of the decade.