Key highlights as follows:

• Inflation: Headline inflation hit a record 37.16 per cent in May year on year, its highest in a decade, due to the rising prices of food and non-food items. The average annual food inflation that stood at 23.2 percent in 2020 rose to 31.3 percent in 2021 and to 42.4 percent during the first five months of 2022 (Jan-May).
• Exchange rates: On the parallel market, 1USD exchanged for ETB 75 in June 2022.
• Fuel: In July 2022, the government increased the prices of diesel and benzene by 50 and 30 percent respectively. The price of diesel and benzene in July 2022 stands at 129 and 85 percent, above their respective prices a year earlier. The government will continue to provide fuel subsidy to public transport service providers while the subsidy for the other vehicles will be lifted step by step.
• Prices in conflict-affected areas in Northern Ethiopia: The prices of cereals and pulses particularly that of teff, maize, sorghum, wheat (grain and flour) rice, and fava beans stand at record high level in June in Tigray markets. Cereal and pulse prices in Adigrat market are higher by 70 to 309 percent compared to prices in Dessie in June 2022.
• Market Price in Somali market: The average nominal price of maize in nine markets monitored in Somali region surged by 87 percent in May 2021 compared to the corresponding values a year ago. The average shelf price of rice stood at 5,262 Birr/quintal in May 2022, an increase by 56 percent, year on year.  
• Terms of Trade (measure of purchasing power) in Somali region: Average-sized male sheep/goat that could fetch 126 kg of maize in May 2021 in Gode market now brings only 70 kg of maize in May 2022, a reduction of purchasing power of pastoralists by 45 percent year on year.
• Minimum Expenditure basket for food (MEB): the MEB for a household required to meet its basic food needs in rural Somali jumped from 1,003 Birr/person/month in May 2021 to 1,591Birr person/month in May 2022, an increase by 59 percent over one-year period.
• Market and food security outlook:  The severe drought condition in the South and Southeast, in Somali, parts of Oromia, SNNP and Southwest regions, will continue to distress food security and livelihoods of pastoralist and agro-pastoralists. Unfortunately, there is a broad consensus from meteorological experts on a concrete risk that the Dyer 2022 rains (October-December 2022) could also fail, leading to a fifth poor season for south/south-eastern pastoral areas.