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According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, on October 14, 2022 local time, the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance announced that due to the increasingly serious shortage of foreign exchange, it had decided to freeze the issuance of letters of credit for 38 products such as imported furniture from October 17, 2022, and the ban would continue indefinitely.

According to the latest list of products banned from import indefinitely, the 38 products involved include residential furniture and office furniture (except specially designed chairs), carpets, ceramics, kitchenware, bicycles, cars (except electric cars), artificial jewelry, chocolate, and so on. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

The 38 products prohibited from import are not affected by the ban if the letter of credit has been approved and is in the process of import and transportation.

The Ethiopian government pointed out that the latest prohibited products were considered luxury goods. Fikadu Digafe, chief economist and vice president of the National Bank of Ethiopia, said: "By stopping the import of selected non-essential goods, we can roughly expect to save about US $100 million. This money will be used to import key goods, especially industrial inputs." Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, as of the middle of July, the country's foreign exchange reserves were 3.2 billion US dollars. According to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund for Ethiopia from 2022 to 2023, Ethiopia's foreign exchange reserves can only allow the country to import fuel, fertilizer, medicine and other key goods in less than one month.

At present, Ethiopia is the latest country to ban the import of non-essential goods due to the pressure of foreign exchange reserves. According to incomplete statistics, Sri Lanka is still restricting the import of furniture, cars and other goods to cope with the shortage of foreign exchange, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.