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News release

Ethiopians see government failing on their top concern – management of the economy

24 May 2024 Ethiopia
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News release
Key findings
  • Management of the economy ranks as the top priority that Ethiopians want their government to address, followed by water supply and the threat of civil war (Figure 1).
  • But more than seven in 10 citizens (72%) say the government has done “fairly badly” or “very badly” in managing the economy (Figure 2).
  • A majority (56%) of Ethiopians also say the country is heading in “the wrong direction,” up by 20 percentage points compared to 2020 (Figure 3).
  • Negative assessments of the country’s overall direction are particularly common among urban residents (62%), citizens with post-secondary education (66%), and older respondents (60% or higher among those over age 35) (Figure 4).

A large majority of Ethiopians say their government is doing a poor job of managing the economy – their top priority for government action, the latest Afrobarometer survey shows.

Economic management outranks water supply and the threat of civil unrest among the most important problems that citizens say their government needs to address.

More than half of citizens also think the county is heading in the wrong direction, an assessment that has worsened significantly since 2020.