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Eritrea Finds New Ways to Earn Hard Currency Published: Thursday, 22 June 2006 It may look like a truck park near Asmara’s Halibet Hospital, but the Eritrean government has different plans. To tap into the large amount of hard currency held by its overseas community, it’s developing a major housing project. The plan calls for 766 new two- and three-bedroom apartments with shopping centers and sports facilities . Prices range from $97,000 to $139,000 — affordable by global standards, yet far beyond reach for most Eritreans, whose average annual income is about $130 . Eritrea Halibet Housing Project Brochures are distributed through embassies, with payments accepted in USD, euros, or pounds —but not in nakfa, the national currency. According to the IMF , the government’s hard-currency reserves equal only one month of imports. An Asmara-based analyst noted, “ This economy lives off two things: diaspora and loans. ” In 2003, Eritrea paid fifty times mo...