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Guide to Ethiopia

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Information supplied by the Bradt Guide To Ethiopia third edition

The safest way to take money to Ethiopia is in the form of travellers cheques, as they can be refunded if stolen. Most major currencies are acceptable in banks, but unless you have a strong reason for not doing so, take US Dollar travellers cheques as they will be the most readily accepted. Some banks, however, offer less favourable exchange rates for travellers cheques compared to notes.

Credit cards are close to useless in Ethiopia.

The unit of currency is the birr. Notes are printed in denominations of 100, 50, 10, 5 and 1 birr; and 50 cent, 25c, 10c, 5c and 1c coins are minted. The birr is one of the strongest currencies in Africa, with exchange rates in mid-2001 at roughly $1USD = Birr 8.90 and £1GBP = Birr 17.58.

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