Ethiopia is likely to achieve a projected 7.9 percent economic growth rate for the current Ethiopian 2023/2024 fiscal year, which ends on July 7, 2024, a senior official has said.
Fitsum Assefa, Ethiopian minister of planning and development, on Tuesday told reporters that the country has been performing well in agriculture, industry and service sectors, indicating that the target is attainable.
She said the agriculture sector’s performance is “impressive” amid the majority of the country’s agricultural land being not cultivated amid unfolding conflict in almost half of the Horn African nation.
In terms of revenue generation, Assefa said that the Ethiopian government has collected about $6.5 billion in the past nine months. Total government expenditure during the same period amounted to about $8.6 billion with capital expenditure accounting for a substantial 15.5 percent of the total.
Ethiopia has generated about $2.5 billion from the export of goods and $5.8 billion from service exports.
Fitsum expressed confidence that the projected 7.9 percent economic growth is achievable by the end of the fiscal year, attributing it to the positive outlook and progress made in key economic areas crucial for the country’s macroeconomic development.
According to the World Bank, Ethiopia, with about 126.5 million people, is the second most populous nation in Africa after Nigeria and one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, with a 7.2 percent growth during the previous Ethiopian fiscal year (2022/2023).
MG/as/APA