Ethiopian PM recounts steady economic growth

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Saturday announced a stable economy as the country's pace toward rapid development has been gathering momentum during the current budget year.

The growth was a manifestation of rewarding outcomes of the ongoing implementation of the government's development strategies, Meles underscored.

While presenting the mid-term performance report of the government to the lower House of People's Representatives, Meles said encouraging gains have been registered in terms of aggregate economic growth as well as in export, investment and finance performances of the country during the first half of the fiscal year (July 8, 2005 -- July 7, 2006).

Meles said the total harvest volume of the year will have stood at more than 13,708,000 tons, which translates to a rise of 15.13 percent. National harvest volume during the previous year was more than 11, 906,000 tons.

He said it was envisaged attaining a GDP growth this budget year that would be at par with the 14.97 percent growth the country registered the previous year. The harvest forecast demonstrates the gains the country's market-driven agricultural production strategy has been showing, according to Meles.

The rate at which Ethiopia's exportable agricultural goods has been growing outpaces that of production of other crops, said the prime minister, adding that oilseeds production has shown a 15.7 percent growth, of which sesame production accounted for 40.2 percent.

During the first six months of the budget year, the country has made exports to the value of 389.5 million U.S. dollars, showing a 33 percent growth, he said.

"This is a tangible outcome of the country's export-led production strategy," Meles said.

According to Meles, oilseeds overtook the lead, accounting for a share of 27.7 percent of the total exports.

Over the past six months alone, investment projects that injected a capital of 14.6 billion birr (1.68 billion dollars) in aggregate have been licensed, of which foreign investment accounted for 8.73 billion birr (1.06 billion dollars), Meles said.

Investment projects that had been licensed during the same period last year amounted to a capital of 10.09 billion birr (1.16 billion dollars). Bank loans have also exceeded those of the same period last year by 32.1 percent.

The local revenue performance has also shown a comparative growth as more than 4.261 billion birr (491 million dollars) has been collected over the reported period in direct and non-direct taxes as well as from non-tax sources, Meles indicated.

In his report, Meles indicated the need to carry on with the hard work to meet the plan of the budget year and to get well prepared to implement development projects in the year ahead with more efficiency and resilience.

He also indicated activities to stabilize market as prices of some basic consumer goods have gone up in urban areas particularly in the country's capital Addis Ababa, in spite of the considerable growth being registered in national economy.

Source: Xinhua