Fortune News | Jun 29,2024
Parliament unanimously passed the federal government’s current fiscal budget last Monday, July 8, 2019. Totalling 386.9 billion Birr, it is 11.5pc higher than last year’s budget. The government plans to cover 65pc of it from domestic tax revenues, while external assistance and loans will cover the rest.
In the parliamentary session, Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed (PhD), while answering questions from members of parliament, indicated that the macroeconomic policy the country has been following for the last 15 years would be changing from the ‘aggregate demand’ to ‘aggregate supply’ model.
However, the just passed budget does not seem to strictly reflect that shift as the ‘aggregate supply’ model discourages heavy government spending. The budget has allocated 130.7 billion Br for capital spending, which is a 14.8pc, or 16.4 billion Br, increase from the last fiscal year. Recurrent government spending has gone up by 19.5 Br to 109.5 billion Br.
This shows the dilemma the government is facing. The impressive economic growth of the last 15 years was primarily government driven and necessarily fueled by debt. The country is currently carrying a foreign debt of 27 billion dollars and local debt of 731 billion Br. Since this trend is unsustainable, the government is trying to change its policy and encourage more private sector participation in the economy. However, the private sector in Ethiopia is not strong enough yet to fill the gap. Solving this dilemma will be testing the government’s economic leadership capacity in the coming year.
You can read the full story here
PUBLISHED ON
Jul 13,2019 [ VOL
20 , NO
1002]
Fortune News | Jun 29,2024
Radar | Jun 11,2024
Radar | May 31,2020
Editorial | Jun 22,2024
Editorial | Jul 23,2022
Fortune News | Apr 25,2020
Radar | Jan 29,2022
Fortune News | Jul 07,2024
Fortune News | Jul 08,2019
Fortune News | Jun 08,2019
Aug 18 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Although predictable Yonas Zerihun's job in the ride-hailing service is not immune to...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transportin...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
The cracks in Ethiopia's higher education system were laid bare during a synthesis re...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Construction authorities have unveiled a price adjustment implementation manual for s...
Oct 5 , 2024
Not long ago, the sight of exchange bureaus in Addis Abeba was as rare as a cloudless...
Sep 28 , 2024
In the early 2010s, Ethiopian authorities found themselves at odds with the Internati...
Sep 21 , 2024
A nurse in Addis Abeba shares a cramped one-room apartment with three colleagues. Her...
Sep 14 , 2024
Successive regimes share a common legacy: a deep-seated commitment to education as a...