Addis Ababa, November 14, 2023 (FBC) – Ethiopia’s gross domestic product has doubled from 84 billion USD to 164 USD in the last five years despite various global and local constraints, the first time in the country’s economic growth history, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) asserted while addressing the parliament’s regular session this morning.
Reflecting on previous achievements and the government’s main priorities for the current fiscal year, the Prime Minister noted that among the main goals set in the Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda are stabilizing the country’s macro economy, modernizing and advancing the investment and business environment, increasing the productivity of sectors and increasing the capacity of the government.
As part of the homegrown economic reform, he pointed out that the government is carrying out multiple activities with the aim of advancing the economy from ‘grey to green’. The volume of the efforts and their achievements speak for themselves, PM Abiy underscored.
In the last five years, Ethiopia’s gross domestic product has reached about 164 billion dollars from 84 billion dollars, the Premier said citing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recent report.
According to him, the per capita income has doubled from 882 USD to 1,549 USD in the past few years.
The Premier also emphasized that Ethiopia is one of the few countries that are achieving rapid economic growth in Africa and in the world despite global and domestic constraints.
Recall that the IMF recently projected that Ethiopia’s economy has resisted global shocks unlike other nations that struggled to cope with the impacts of global factors such as COVID-19 and conflicts.
Regarding the growing number of financial institutions in the country, the Prime Minister noted that there are more than 100 institutions providing financial services in Ethiopia.
He explained that there are about 31 commercial banks, about 48 microfinance institutions, 6 payment service companies, 6 capital goods revenue companies, and 7 mobile wallet service providers. In that regard, the financial sector has been growing by 20 percent annually in the last five years alone, PM Abiy underscored.
The industry sector also registered a 6.9 percent growth in the last fiscal year. Especially, the electric sector has recorded a 12% growth, the manufacturing sector 7%, and the construction sector 7.1%. Through the Ethiopia Tamrt (Made In Ethiopia) program, the capacity of manufacturing industries has increased from 47% to 55% (8% increase), the Prime Minister said.
According to him, import substitution production has increased from 30 to 38 percent in last fiscal year through domestic industries.
Meanwhile, the country has also obtained a total of 23.7 billion USD foreign currency during the 2022/23 fiscal year, it was indicated.
Furthermore, the service industry has registered a 7.9% growth. Transport and communications contributed a big share of this growth. Both Ethiopian Airlines and Ethio telecom have recorded a huge volume of growth. Meanwhile, the Hotel sector has also registered over 10% growth, PM Abiy said citing various data from international organizations.