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The government of Ethiopia lifted the price cap on cotton on 15 August 2011 following the decline of prices in the international market.

For three months from November 2010, the price of a kilogramme of cotton was fixed at 42.78 Br a kilo. At the same time, the government had also banned exporting cotton when demand by local textile factories increased and prices in the international market soared.

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has commissioned a study to introduce a 200 birr note as the highest legal tender instead of the hitherto 100 birr note.

Considering the inflation in the economy, which surged to 39 percent in July, a currency with 100 birr note as its highest denomination cannot sustain the volume of transaction in the economy, experts say.

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) said that official receipt of remittance to Ethiopia grew to 1.5 billion dollars in the fiscal year to 8 July 2011, registering an 88 percent increase over its value in the previous year.

In spite of discrepancies for years between World Bank's estimates and that of NBE, the National Bank of Ethiopia for the first time confirmed the receipt of 1.5 billion dollars.

According the central bank's record, 789.5 million dollar was collected from Ethiopian citizens and foreigners based in Ethiopia over the last fiscal year in the form of private transfer.

Steel rolling mills in Ethiopia are going to be prohibited from importing billet (semi finished steel).
There are eight steel rolling mills in Ethiopia which import billet.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development decided two weeks ago to ban the billet imports and assign a state enterprise to import the billets and distribute them to the rolling mills.

SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewer, and SouthWest Development (SWD), an Ethiopian investment group, are going to build a 60-million-dollar brewery in Ethiopia. The brewery will be built near Holeta, 40km from Addis Ababa.

The brewery is expected to have an annual production capacity of 500,000 hectolitres of beer. Construction of the factory is scheduled to start when the rainy season is over and to be completed in 18 months time.

International business exhibition on the side.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and the UN Development Programmeare organizing the sixth African Economic Conference on the theme “Green Economy and Structural Transformation in Africa” in Ethiopia from 25 to 28 October 2011.

The Yirgachefe Coffee Farmers Cooperatives Union said it was planning to earn over 7 million dollars from the export of coffee during the current fiscal year.

The union hopes to earn the 7 million dollars by exporting more than 1,100 tonnes of coffee to the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Europe, Takele Mamo, general manager of the union, said yesterday.

Meta Abo is the third brewery for sale by the Ethiopian government after Bedele and Harar were sold two breweries to Heineken.

British, Dutch and South African breweries are putting bids for Meta Abo, an Ethiopian brewery which brews the Meta Abo beer. Meta Abo is located 20km west of Addis Ababa.

The government of Ethiopia has not yet revealed how much it is demanding for Meta Abo but the bids will close on September 3.

The Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE) is going to import coal from South Africa to secure sustainable supply of coal as an alternative source of energy for cement factories.

The move follows the unsuccessful bid by the Ethiopian government to acquire pet coke for cement factories.

All 12 cement factories have the infrastructure for using coal while Mugher and East are expected to finish installing infrastructure to use coal power sources by 2013.

The Ethiopian Airlines said it was planning to increase its market share in Africa by ten folds in 2025 by raising the quality of its service and number of its aircraft.

Tewolde Gebre-Mariam, CEO of the airlines, said that Ethiopian would add 70 modern, fuel-saving aircraft to its fleet.

According to Tewolde, Ethiopian's annual income has now reached 1.6 billion dollars and the company was working to raise it to 10 billion dollars. The airline’s annual number of passengers is currently over three million, three times greater than the number of passengers over the last five years.