Inflation surpassed 20% in Ethiopia last year and it’s still rising–up to 24.5% in June–as the country struggles to contain the economic fall-out of the covid-19 pandemic. Yikes.

It could simply buy more dollars. That’s China’s approach: more than half of its $3.2tr worth of foreign exchange reserves is believed to be USD, which it uses to manipulate the USD/CNY exchange rate and keep exports rolling off the shelves. This is interesting. I guess a reserve is like a liquidity pool in defi - a means of establishing an exchange rate particularly if you're a large source of liquidity. And in order to keep the relative value of the Birr high, they can acquire more dollars? I'm not sure if that's the right way to view this.

The East African country has abundant supplies of renewable energy: 90% of its electricity is already powered by domestic hydroelectric plants, with the remainder largely coming from wind, solar and geothermal sources. Water rich.