BY HIZKEL HAILU
ADDIS ABABA: – Increasing productivity and encouraging foreign investors’ involvement in Ethiopia’s wider business opportunities are tools to control the current soaring inflation, economic expert said, adding agricultural productivity has also significant importance in the endeavor.
Speaking to local media, the economist Shiferaw Adissu (PhD) stated that population upsurge, the unrest in parts of the country and natural and manmade disasters have caused the current exorbitant rates of goods in the country.
Shiferaw further noted that anti-peace groups that have looted enormous public wealth during their 27-year-long leadership have been engaged in withholding of goods and other market manipulation which have caused artificial inflation in the country.
As to him, the government should strive to lessen the frequency of printing of new money and effectively allocate the hardly-gained foreign currency for intended purposes, something the country failed in TPLF’s 27-year- rule. Unless the government spends the foreign currency properly, the situation will create a huge challenge Ethiopia’s overall economy.
Encouraging government’s commitment to substitute imported wheat with domestic production and adopting cloud-seeding technology for increasing productivity, the economist suggested that the incumbent should also work to monitor illegal withholding of goods by some greedy traders.
As to him, encouraging the involvement of multinational companies in Ethiopia’s priority investment areas is something worth consideration to enhance the country’s export capacity and stimulate the national economy.
Above all, a lot is expected from the government to ensure a lasting peace and stability across the nation and creating a conducive business climate for anchor companies’ effective operation thereby easing the mounting inflation.
The Ethiopian Herald 13 April 2021
