PM praises achievements in 3 years
Addis Ababa, May 7, 2021 (FBC) – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said core milestones were achieved over the past three years in fiscal policy, state owned enterprise reforms and financial sectors.
The Prime Minister said in a twitter post today that tax revenue increased by 36% from 229 billion birr to 311 billion birr between 2018 and 2020.
External resource increased by 34% from $3.5 billion to $4.7 billion and more than 200 billion birr has been invested on capital investments, which is a 27% increase from capital investments since 2018, he said.
According to the Prime Minister, close to 300 billion birr invested in pro-poor including in education, health, water and sanitation, roads, and agriculture in 2020, which is a 35% increase from 2018.
Poverty targeted spending accounted for an average of 60% of total spending, the Prime Minister tweeted.
The Government spent close to 19 billion birr to expand safety net coverage for the vulnerable population in the past three years, with a rapid increase in the rate of graduation from safety net programs.
The Prime Minister added that telecom-sector liberalization is underway with the aim to improve access, reliability and efficiency of telecom services to boost economic competitiveness and innovation.
Moreover, privatization of 10 state-owned sugar estates is underway to allow the private sector to exploit the national sugar production potential to meet import substitution and to increase export earnings, he said.
Liberalization of the logistics sector is also in progress to improve efficiency and promote private sector engagement.
Export revenue showed a 12% increase, offer close to a decade of stagnant performance, and deposits mobilization increase by 42.6% in 2018, reaching a deposit of more than a trillion, he said.
The private sector’s credit share has increased from less than half (44%) in 2018 to 64% of total credits in the economy by 2020, showing the private sector’s improved access to finance and economic opportunities.