Ethiopia is demonetizing its economy with new currency to tackle hoarding and illegal trade

The Ethiopian government has unveiled a set of new bank notes as a part of its efforts to curb cash hoarding, illegal trade activities, and illicit financial flows in an already struggling economy. Prime minister Abiy Ahmed disclosed the notes with denominations of five, 10, and 100 are changed, and a new 200 birr (~$5.50) note is being introduced. Over 3.6 billion Ethiopian birr ($97 million) is being spent to print the new currencies.