Foreign Investment in Ethiopia Slumps After Business Attacks

Foreign direct investment in Ethiopia dropped by a fifth in the first half of the country’s fiscal year after violent anti-government protests in which foreign-owned businesses were targeted.

The country attracted $1.2 billion in the six months through the end of December, compared with $1.5 billion in the same period a year earlier, Fitsum Arega, commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission, said in a phone interview Monday from the capital, Addis Ababa. He said the government may miss its annual target of $3.5 billion, with $3.2 billion more likely to be attainable.