Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Ethiopia’s economy has registered growth amid various challenges including internal conflict, drought, impacts of the Ukraine crisis and COVID-19 pandemic.
The Prime Minister’s remark came on Tuesday while presenting his government’s six-month performance report to the lower house of the Ethiopian parliament involving security, economic and social matters.
PM Abiy noted that sub-Saharan countries expected to register 3.8 percent growth as IMF projected 5.7 percent growth for Ethiopia this fiscal year.
Ahmed said the country’s debt to GDP ratio stands at 59 percent noting that his government has borrowed no commercial loan since it came to power five years ago but managed to pay 1.7 U.S dollar debt last year.
The Prime Minister indicated that imported inflation, absence of an efficient logistic platform, widening gap between demand and supply are some of the major challenges affecting the growth of the Ethiopian economy.
Noting that there has been non-stop inflation in Ethiopia since 20 years, Ahmed said the war in northern Ethiopia, drought and dwindling support from partner organizations and migration of people to urban centers have exacerbated the inflationary situation in the country.
He said his government has spent over 50 billion birr (more than 927 million U.S dollar) for fuel subsidy over the last eight months and another 21 billion birr (371 million U.S. dollar) for fertilizer import, said the Prime Minister, indicating that 59 percent of the country’s budget goes to poverty alleviation.
For the premier, working on reducing accumulated debt, high cost of living, filling the gaps in infrastructure development problems and narrowing the gap between supply and demand will be crucial to realize the country’s growth ambitions.
MG/abj/APA