Ethiopia’s finance minister Ahmed Shide proposed to parliament on Tuesday 386.9 billion birr ($13.5 billion) in government spending national budget for the next Ethiopian fiscal year which begins on July 8, 2019, which is 12% higher than 2018/19’s 346.9 billion birr figure ($12.8 billion at the exchange rate of that time)
Ethiopia’s economy is projected to grow by 9% in 2019/2020; Minister Ahmed Shide told lawmakers on June 10 as he presented plans to raise spending.
Out of the total, 130.7 billion birr ($4.5 billion) will be used as capital budget while some 140 billion birr (around $4.9 billion) will go to regions as budget support, according to the budget approved by the Council of Ministers.
The Council has also approved some 109 billion birr as recurrent budget Over 6 billion birr is also allocated for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. After the Council of Ministers has approved the budget it has passed it to the Ethiopian Parliament for final endorsement.
In the 2017/18 budget year, Ethiopia’s budget deficit was estimated to reach 3.7 percent of its GDP. For the current fiscal year (2018/19) Ethiopia economy is expected to grow by 8.5 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2018, the IMF estimated Ethiopia’s total GDP at then market prices to reach 2.6 trillion birr (about $90 billion) in the current fiscal year. The IMF forecast (IMF Country Report No. 18/354) shows that in five years, Ethiopia’s GDP should reach 4.7 trillion birr.
