By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA, July 7 (Reuters) – The Ethiopian parliament passed a 320.8 billion birr ($13.9 billion) budget for the financial year of 2017/18 on Friday, an increase of nearly 17 percent on the previous year, the ministry of finance said.

The east African nation’s budget sets aside 114.7 billion birr for capital expenditures. Recurrent expenditure – including administrative, economic and social services – amounts to 81.8 billion birr. ($1 = 23.1100 birr) (Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Source: Reuters