Interview: Ethiopia sees rapid economic growth despite challenges: state minister

Ethiopia is expected to register double-digit growth despite a drought and global economic impact, said Ahmed Shide, Ethiopian State Minister of Finance and Economic Cooperation.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Thursday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, the state minister told Xinhua that Ethiopia would keep the momentum of growth registered over the last 12 years as due to the dimensions of development in the country.

He stated that the second growth and transformation plan (GTP II), which Ethiopia has already embarked upon its implementation, has set for sustaining the growth and further transforming the structure of the economy.

"Ethiopia is still sustaining rapid economic growth. For the last 12 years, the economy has been growing in double-digit fashion," said the minister.

"This year, we also expect a similar growth even though there might be a little impact from the drought situation as well as from the world economic situations," he said.

The state minister stressed that Ethiopia will keep the "momentum of growth" as "smallholder agriculture sector is contributing significantly to our growth."

The government is investing massively on public infrastructure for job creation and service delivery expansion, and industry is also starting to grow, he said.

"Therefore, as a result of all those dimensions of development, we expect similar rapid economic growth," noted the state minister.

Ethiopia will work more on infrastructure investment, on human skill development as well as on institution building so as to attract foreign direct investment as well as unleash the potential of domestic private sector, he said.

Domestically, the challenge would be the current drought, which the state minister said is being addressed with the capacity the country has built over the past two decades and also with the support from development partners.

The decline of commodity prices in the global market causes both positive and negative effects to Ethiopia, he said, adding the global impact would be minimal due to the country's diversified sources of growth.

"The oil price declines, we are significant beneficiary. Some of agricultural exports like sesame and others, the world price is declining that will be affecting us," he said.

"But in a nut shell, because of the diversified nature of source of growth as well as the comprehensive development approach that we are following, we are expecting the current global impact will be minimal," said the state minister. Endit