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bir

File:Ethiopia_1Birr_Reverse.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Also known as Ethiopian dollar, ETB, Ethiopian birr

currency of Ethiopia

AI overview

"Bir" is the currency used in Ethiopia for buying and selling goods and services. It matters because it's the official money that Ethiopians use in their daily economic transactions and that the country's government manages to control the economy.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Image
Ethiopia, 25 centimes 1944, Selassie I.jpg
Show 5 more facts
Commons category
Banknotes of Ethiopia
start time
1945-00-00
unit symbol
Br
price
0.030593
conversion to standard unit
0.0997207818109294
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via Wikidata · CC0

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Article

The birr (Amharic: ብር) is the primary unit of currency in Ethiopia. It is subdivided into 100 santims.

In 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie formally requested that the international community use the name Ethiopia (as it had already been known internally for at least 1,600 years) instead of the exonym Abyssinia, and the issuing Bank of Abyssinia also became the Bank of Ethiopia. Thus, the pre-1931 currency may be referred to as the Abyssinian birr and the post-1931 currency the Ethiopian birr, although neither the country nor the currency changed beyond the name.

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