The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Ethiopia’s macroeconomic reform, particularly in terms of Forex management, is proving promising.
The IMF also indicated that the country’s macroeconomic reform has shown improvements on inland revenue, strengthening state development enterprises and ensuring healthy finance system.
The government of Ethiopia is doing a lot on debt payment and restructuring, according to the IMF. In line with this, the country’s Planning and Development Minister, Fitsum Assefa said Ethiopia’s foreign currency reserve has highly increased.
“If we see the forex market in the country’s banking sector, the banks now have forex surplus for the amount they bought is more than the amount they sold out. This is the first improvement in Ethiopia’s banking industry and it’s the result of the macroeconomic reform. ”
According to the minister, Ethiopia’s national foreign currency reserve has now risen by 200%.
Ethiopia’s implementation of the full-fledged macroeconomic reform has brought results in different parameters, said the Finance Minister Ahmed Shide during media briefing.
“Following the full-fledged macroeconomic reform, the country’s development is projected to be better than the previous year. The economic indexes also attest this. The development cooperation we have with our development partners has become stronger. There is also improved performance of export trade. The saving amount in the banks has also grown. The loan they provide for the economy has become stronger.”
The finance provision from the IMF is expected to accelerate Ethiopia’s implementation of the full-fledged macroeconomic reform, according to Global Chairman of Fairfax Africa Fund, Zemedeneh Nigatu.
“The IMF is the leading provider of funds to Ethiopia’s Home-Grown Economic Reform. Hence, as it is a partner and it provides the fund, it makes close supervision and makes financial reports of the progress every three months. The latest such report is released last Friday. The report focused on 5 key points. The report shows that at macro level the overall reform is going smoothly per the agreement. This year, Ethiopia’s economy will grow by 6.7%. This means the growth Ethiopia’s Economy will see is the first among the five big economies in the continent.”
As Ethiopia commenced implementing the second phase Home-Grown Economic Reform since July 2024, global development partners like the IMF and World Bank pledged to fund the macroeconomic reform by allotting USD27 billion.