PM Says Indicators Show Better Economic Growth

Addis Ababa, July 5/2021(ENA)Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that preliminary indicators show that Ethiopia, despite the various challenges, is expected to register better economic growth than last budget year.

Premier Abiy responded to questions about the draft budget bill for 2014 fiscal year and current affairs raised  from members of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) today.

Against the challenges of COVID-19, locust invasion, conflict and flood, Ethiopia remained to maintain positive growth, he added.

Abiy pointed out that Export has grown by 18 percent gaining 3.5 billion USD this year alone.

Furthermore, the Premier pointed out that Ethiopia’s per capital income and GDP has surpassed 1000 USD and 100 billion USD respectively.

Abiy noted that Ethiopia’s resilience is mainly due to the fact that it was built on a solid foundation.

Foreign credit burden has been lowered from 37 to 26 percent and more effort is needed to improve it.

Ethiopia’s FDI has shown 20 percent increase last year, Abiy stated, adding that some 2.7 billion USD entered to Ethiopia mainly due to the improved ease of doing business.

He indicated that one of the major challenges of the economy is the soaring inflation created due to several reasons including the imbalance of supply and demand, man made obstacles in the trade system, and imported inflation of goods such as fertilizers and petroleum.

Abiy further said that the multifaceted measures being taken to curb these challenges will be enhanced during the coming Ethiopian fiscal year too.

Enhancing agricultural productivity by carrying out irrigation farming and using all  available farmlands across the country to produce crops are the critical undertaking that would be intensified in the new budget year so as to control the inflation by increasing the food supply.  

According to the premier, the summer irrigation development project carried of this year enabled the nation harvest more than 15 million additional quantals of wheat.

Hence, this would be intensified in the coming years using additional technologies to increase the productivity, he added.

He stressed the need to increase investment on agricultural undertakings with view to sustain the national economic development. The government would support the sector in this regard.