Minister says Ethiopian Per Capita Income hits an all-time high

By Gubae Gundarta

Ato Sufian Ahmed, Ethiopian Minister of Finance and Economic Development, said Thursday that the roles of agriculture, which is the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy, as well as that of the industrial sector, have dropped in the country’s economy. In his five-year performance report (2006-2010), the Minister indicated that in the five-year plan it was planned to bring about a structural change in the Gross National Product (GNP) by scaling up the agricultural, industrial and service sectors to 43.9%, 16.5%, and 39.6% respectively. However, he pointed out that the share of agriculture in the GNP has fallen by 1.05% and that of industrial sector by 0.15% resulting in 43.2% and 13 % in 2001 Ethiopian fiscal year.

According to the Minister, the implication of the plummeting of the share of agricultural contribution is that the economy has significantly grown whereas the case of industry points in the direction of a need for a more strengthened effort to bring about growth in the sector.

In the five-year plan, the major obstacle for the economy was said to have been price hike. The performance report underlined that the escalation of the price of non-consumable goods can be put down to the increase in the price of fuel and construction materials. Due to the gap between the supply and demand of construction materials in the country, the prices have not come down to the expected threshold. With regard to food products, however, the prices have come down to as low as 4.9% below zero based on the findings of the survey carried out by Central Statistics Agency in the minister’s words.

Among members of opposition parties in attendance, Derza asked Sofian Ahmed, “How can you say that the price of food products has significantly dropped while they are still out of reach and getting higher than ever?”
National debt also reached 89.5 bn. while it was thought not to exceed 41.6 four years ago considering 1997 Ethiopian fiscal year as springboard.
The minister also affirmed that Ethiopia has registered significant economic growth as the result of which the per capita income that had been 146 in 1997 (2005) Ethiopian fiscal year increased rapidly and reached 217 USD four years later.

The above affirmation of the minister was met with sharp criticism from another opposition MP, Temesgen Zewde, who asserted, “The least possible goals of any country’s economy is to enable its citizens to have access to the basic desiderata in life, such as food, shelter and clothing. But the ruling party has never been able to achieve this since it came to power.” Moreover, Temesgen indicated that 60% of the country’s population earns less than one USD a day. “Most of the urban dwellers live in dilapidated kebele houses which cannot quite protect them from harsh weather conditions; clad in used and discarded wear smuggled into the country,” he added.

Temesgen said due to EPRDF’s command economy saving culture in the country is very poor and consequently the economic growth which is claimed to have been registered remains questionable. Consequently he referred to the minister’s report as lacking in many essential details.

Source: Goggle Newspaper(Amharic weekly)