Addis Standard- World Bank says Ethiopia’s poverty rate expected to climb to 43% in 2025, reversing years of progress
Posted: 14 Oct 2025, 19:31
The World Bank’s latest assessment on poverty and equity in Ethiopia forecasts that poverty will increase to 43% by 2025, up from 33% in 2016 (measured at $3 per day, 2021 PPP). 
After making significant strides in reducing poverty for over two decades, Ethiopia has in recent years encountered internal and external challenges that impacted living standards, the World Bank says. These challenges include the Tigray conflict, severe droughts, a slowdown in GDP growth, internal conflicts in Amhara & Oromia and soaring inflation.
Additionally, rural communities have restricted access to off-farm opportunities, in part due to policies that limit the effective functioning of land and labor markets. The significant decline in living standards in rural areas, where approximately three-quarters of the population resides, has accentuated the rural nature of poverty in Ethiopia, the World Bank says.
Disparities in access to public services by income are stark, with sanitation facilities and electricity connections being nearly three to four times more prevalent in the top 20 percent of the country than in the bottom 20 percent. The ownership of assets further underscores this divide, as less than 1 percent of the poorest quintile possess refrigerators, cars, bicycles, or computers.
In September 2025 in a new joint assessment World Bank–IMF has delivered a stark warning on Ethiopia’s economic outlook, declaring the country’s external debt “unsustainable” and confirming that the government is already in debt distress.
https://addisstandard.com/world-bank-et ... -progress/
After making significant strides in reducing poverty for over two decades, Ethiopia has in recent years encountered internal and external challenges that impacted living standards, the World Bank says. These challenges include the Tigray conflict, severe droughts, a slowdown in GDP growth, internal conflicts in Amhara & Oromia and soaring inflation.
Additionally, rural communities have restricted access to off-farm opportunities, in part due to policies that limit the effective functioning of land and labor markets. The significant decline in living standards in rural areas, where approximately three-quarters of the population resides, has accentuated the rural nature of poverty in Ethiopia, the World Bank says.
Disparities in access to public services by income are stark, with sanitation facilities and electricity connections being nearly three to four times more prevalent in the top 20 percent of the country than in the bottom 20 percent. The ownership of assets further underscores this divide, as less than 1 percent of the poorest quintile possess refrigerators, cars, bicycles, or computers.
In September 2025 in a new joint assessment World Bank–IMF has delivered a stark warning on Ethiopia’s economic outlook, declaring the country’s external debt “unsustainable” and confirming that the government is already in debt distress.
https://addisstandard.com/world-bank-et ... -progress/