Ethiopia's economy is 59.2% larger than previously measured after the government moved its gross domestic product base year to 2024-25, a revision that lifts output for that year to $201.4 billion from about $126.4 billion and makes the country Africa's fifth-largest economy.

Finance Minister Fitsum Assefa announced the new figures on Nov. 4, according to Daba Finance. In local currency, GDP for the 2024-25 fiscal year was revised to 24.03 trillion birr from 15.09 trillion birr. Output for the fiscal year that ended in July 2026 is put at 31.86 trillion birr, or about $210.7 billion, the business weekly Capital reported.

For investors in Asia, the rebasing changes the yardsticks used to size Ethiopia's market and to judge its debt. The country is renegotiating its external obligations under the Group of 20's Common Framework, and a larger denominator mechanically lowers ratios such as debt to GDP. It does not change a single payment owed.

Ethiopia Moves Past Morocco and Kenya

On the new numbers, Ethiopia sits behind South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria and ahead of Morocco and Kenya, according to Daba Finance. It had not been in the continent's top five before the revision.

The old base year was 2015-16. A decade is a long time for an economy that has added new industries, opened its currency market and changed how it prices goods. Feleke Demissie, executive director of national economic accounts statistics at the Ministry of Planning and Development, told Capital that international guidelines generally call for a new base year about every five years. Measuring against a stale baseline, he said, "distorts our true economic position."

The revised accounts draw on an agricultural census, household surveys and data from state-owned enterprises and nonprofit institutions, according to the AllAfrica report. The new structure shows services as the largest sector at almost 36% of output, with agriculture at about 32% and industry at about 30%.

That mix differs from the common picture of Ethiopia as a farm economy. Agriculture and services together account for roughly 68% of GDP, Daba Finance said.

The services weighting fits other recent data. Ethiopia has become the largest exporter of commercial services among the world's least developed countries, the French Treasury noted in its weekly East Africa brief, which also reported that the rebasing raised GDP by nearly 60%. The brief did not give an export figure.

The government also plans to move from annual to quarterly GDP reporting, Capital reported. The finance ministry intends to revise historical public finance records, extend the changes to federal and regional administrations and adopt the international ISIC system for classifying industries, working with the planning ministry. The minister said the rebasing would improve planning, policymaking and the collection of domestic revenue, according to the paper.

What the Rebase Means for Debt and Growth

Rebasing measures the economy differently. It does not mean Ethiopians produced 59.2% more goods and services. Daba Finance cited Oxford Economics as saying the revision could make headline debt sustainability measures look better, while repayments, foreign currency needs and interest costs stay the same.

That distinction matters for bondholders and official lenders. Debt ratios feed into the analysis that shapes restructuring terms, but Ethiopia still has to earn or borrow the dollars to service what it owes. The birr has floated since 2024, when the country moved to a market-based exchange rate under an International Monetary Fund-supported program, which means dollar-denominated GDP figures will move with the currency as well as with output.

Rankings across the continent can shift whenever a statistics office updates its base year. Kenya, now behind Ethiopia, is dealing with its own pressures: inflation reached a three-year high in October on fuel costs.

The government expects growth of 10.2% in the fiscal year ending July 2027, according to Daba Finance. The National Bank of Ethiopia kept its policy rate at 16% last week, the French Treasury's regional economic brief said.

Reforms are also opening parts of telecommunications and banking to foreign companies, Daba Finance reported, sectors where a bigger measured economy may strengthen the pitch to outside investors.

The next test of the new accounts is the first quarterly GDP release the ministry has promised. Its timing has not been announced.