The 2022 Draft Budget focuses on debt relief, reconstruction of war-torn infrastructure, humanitarian assistance to the victims and national security: Ahmed Shede
Addis Ababa: May 30, 2014 (FBC) The 2015 Federal Government Draft Budget has been prepared with a focus on debt relief, reconstruction of war-damaged infrastructure, providing humanitarian assistance to the affected people and safeguarding national security, Finance Minister Ahmed Shede said.
The Minister briefed the House of Peoples’ Representatives on the 2015 Federal Government Draft Budget.
Minister Ahmed told the House that the Federal Government’s draft budget for the 2015 fiscal year has been prepared to alleviate the current pressure on fiscal policy.
He said the preparation of the 2015 draft budget, which is 786.61 billion birr, is based on the country’s macroeconomic forecast.
He said the country is expected to end the war and create a favorable macroeconomic economy.He said the country’s economy is projected to grow at 6.6 percent, lowering the forecast for economic growth and drought in the arid areas.
He said the country’s economy is expected to grow by 9.2 percent in the current fiscal year.
Regarding inflation, it was 36.6 percent in April, he said, adding that it would be difficult to reduce inflation to single digits in the short term.
He said it is planned to reduce inflation to 11.9 percent by implementing the necessary policy and structural measures in the 2015 Ethiopian budget year.
He said the draft budget would go a long way in easing the current pressure on fiscal policy.
He noted that promising economic reforms were beginning to take shape through the strong implementation of the Indigenous Economic Reforms (IEP), which was supposed to help stabilize the volatile macroeconomic balance in Ethiopia.He said significant economic reforms implemented in Ethiopia in recent years have created the capacity to withstand the effects and challenges. He noted that the Ethiopian economy was facing many challenges and that the economic growth of many countries in the world had slowed down over the past two years.
He noted that inflation has been a double-digit pace in the past two years and in the current fiscal year, adding that it is still a challenge for the economy.
He noted the need for fiscal and monetary policy as well as integrated measures to address the supply chain and related problems.
He said the government has allocated huge sums of money to subsidize the supply of basic commodities such as oil, sugar, wheat and other commodities.
He said the 2015 Federal Budget focuses on debt relief, reconstruction of war-torn infrastructure, providing humanitarian assistance to war-torn and natural disasters, and national security.
He said the budget deficit is higher than in the previous budget, but care should be taken not to negatively affect the price.
He said the draft budget has increased compared to last year but is not enough in terms of the country’s development needs.
Therefore, they say, the executive should use savings effectively.
He also urged the executive to adhere to the government’s procurement system and to follow cost-effective procedures.
He also called on the House of Peoples’ Representatives to support the ministry in its monitoring and oversight.
