Prime Minister Abiy said that Ethiopia's economic growth has kept its momentum and the country’s growth is tangible.
Addressing the House of People's Representatives, he elaborated at length about the growth trends of the global and Sub-Saharan Africa noting that the trends have been overall downward.
The IMF had made forecast that the world growth would be 3.4 percent for this year, but the growth is revised to 2.8 percent.
Whereas the global economy will only grow by 1.4 percent for next year, the IMF projected that grow of Sub-Saharan countries which was 3.8 percent last year and 3.6 percent this year would decline to 3.2 percent, Abiy stated.
Therefore, it is within this framework that the issue of whether Ethiopia's economy has grown or fallen should be seen, the prime minister underlined.
“We have to assess our progress in the context of the current world economic development. According to the estimate given by the IMF, not the Government of Ethiopia, the growth of the country is 6.4 percent this year,” he pointed out.
The prime minister added that there will also be at least 6.1 percent growth in Ethiopia this year, and 6.4 percent next year.
“There is no country that can be expected to achieve the same level of development as Ethiopia in the Sub-Saharan region,”Abiy, adding that “Ethiopia is one of the few countries that are making rapid progress at the international level. Whether we like it or not, this is the truth.”
As a result, Ethiopia's progress is something that can be seen and touched beyond what can be quantified.
The premier further stated that in order to sustain the economic development and avert the current economic fractures in many ways, the country has embarked on the second phase of the Home-grown Economic Reform.
“We expect a growth rate of at least 7.5 percent. (And) one of the main sectors that ensures the growth of the country is agriculture, which accounts for 33 percent of the economy. This sector is expected to bring 6.3 percent growth this year. The sources of this growth are agricultural produces like rice, corn, and wheat.
According to Abiy, Ethiopia has also been making tremendous progress in poultry, fruit surplus production, and other agricultural produces.
be cultivated for the first time in the history of the country in the upcoming 2022/23 Ethiopian harvesting season.
This season some 513 million quintals are expected to be harvested, according to Ministry of Agriculture.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency