PRIMARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITY EXAMPLES SERIES

When their occupation of Ethiopia ended in 1941, the Italians left behind them a country whose economic structure was much as it had been for centuries. Arabs also settled in the interior and eventually dominated all commercial activity except petty trade. After establishing a foothold in the country, Greek, Armenian, and Arab traders became the economic intermediaries between Ethiopia and the outside world. Most Ethiopians despised traders, preferring instead to emulate the country's legendary warriors and priests. ĭespite its many riches, Ethiopia would stop being a great trading state after fall of Axum. From there, one route went north to Mitsiwa via Gonder and Adwa, the other along the Awash River valley to Harer and then on to Berbera or Zeila on the Red Sea. At that time, most trade flowed along two major trade routes, both of which terminated in the far southwest in the Kefa-Jima region. By the late nineteenth century, coffee had become one of Ethiopia's more important cash crops. Since ancient times, Ethiopian traders exchanged gold, ivory, musk, and wild animal skins for salt and luxury goods, such as silk and velvet. Įthiopia's resources have enabled the country-unlike most sub-Saharan African countries-to maintain contacts with the outside world for centuries. The country must create hundreds of thousands of jobs every year just to keep up with population growth.

Even though education enrolment at primary and tertiary level has increased significantly, job creation has not caught up with the increased output from educational institutes. Almost 50% of Ethiopia's population is under the age of 18.

However, certain sectors such as telecommunications, financial and insurance services, air and land transportation services, and retail, are considered as strategic sectors and are expected to remain under state control for the foreseeable future. Many properties owned by the government during the previous regime have now been privatized or are in the process of privatization and the liberalization of its financial sector in the near future. Įthiopia has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and is Africa's second most populous country. The banking, telecommunication and transportation sectors of the economy are dominated by government-owned companies. The government of Ethiopia is in the process of privatizing many of the state-owned businesses and moving toward a market economy. The economy of Ethiopia is a mixed and transition economy with a large public sector.

Business economy by sector - NACE Rev.All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

International standard industrial classification of all economic activities (ISIC).

Within the European Union, the classification used of economic activities is the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community, abbreviated as NACE.

PRIMARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITY EXAMPLES SERIES

If the production process is organised as an integrated series of elementary activities within the same statistical unit, the whole combination is regarded as one activity. Thus, an economic activity is characterised by an input of resources, a production process and an output of products (goods or services).Īn activity as defined here may consist of one simple process (for example weaving), but may also cover a whole range of sub-processes, each mentioned in different categories of the classification (for example, the manufacturing of a car consists of specific activities such as casting, forging, welding, assembling or painting). An economic activity takes place when resources such as capital goods, labour, manufacturing techniques or intermediary products are combined to produce specific goods or services.

Primary economic activity examples