BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
Economic challenges have been the major constraints for the development of the African continent. People may say that the problems are long rooted for centuries. Most people argue that colonialism is the foundation for the entire crisis that the continent is in. Following the era of colonialism, Africans expected that things would be changed for better. Unfortunately, however, things went from bad to worse even in the hands of Africans.
In the order of the world, economy is the best way to manipulate the entire globe. USA and other European countries have the dominance in the sphere of the world mainly because of their economic power. These countries have been doing everything to stay on power by demolishing the rest of the world. They know that if there are plenty of countries with strong economy, their power will not be that much influential. As a result, in order to keep poor countries in their degraded positions, they have done many conspiracies, especially against African countries.
Ethiopia as one of these African countries has been under pressure by these developed countries. In this condition, Ethiopia, at this time, has been going through both internal and external pressures. These pressures are political and economic.
The economic pressure that the country has been facing in the past three years harshly affects the entire economic growth of the country. There are huge price gaps in items especially on basic food items. It is witnessed that there is shortage of legal foreign currency whereas there is a boosting in the black markets.
It is true that these challenges are existed currently of which both the people and the government have been suffering a lot. Economists believe that the core reason for this problem is the existing war in the northern part of the country. In the absence of peace and security, it seems normal to people feel scared, terrorized and coerced to commit any even wrong deeds to escape from the situation.
So, what should be expected from the people and the government to cope up with these internal and external economic pressures is a basic question to be addressed. It is obvious that the shortage of foreign currency and price inflation cause numerous problems in day to day lives of the people.
In the past years, the government has been trying to apply different types of techniques and strategies to cope up with this economic pressure. The government has distributed basic commodities through the cooperative associations to address the needs of the citizens. The government has also appreciated the local investors those invested on edible oil production.
There are other measures taken by the government in different economic sectors in order to minimize the existing inflation including measures on the price and distribution of cement.
In recent days for instance, the Harari State administration has executed corrective measures to resist both the artificial and real inflation existed. Many shops have been closed by the administration because the shop owners have hoarded basic commodities from the society and sold the items making double of their prices. In addition, the administration has defined fixed prices on the basic items specially food items for both sellers and buyers.
In order to alleviate the existing hard situation of inflation many more strategies are expected from the government. According to Wessenseged Assefa, an economist, the government should do things very carefully while coping up with the inflation because
of there are things that have backfires. For instance, when the government wants to create job opportunities, unless it might be done very carefully, it will contribute for the inflation as additional money is injected in the market. To cope up with such challenges, investing on production of basic commodities should also be considered parallel to job creation.
According to the Economist, any inflation whether it is artificial or real it is imminent in such conditions like war. The government must do good to have better strategies to tackle the challenges. The first thing that the government should give attention is about the priorities that must be done on top of other priorities. “It is true that everything is necessary for the growth and development of a nation, but we need to know that the first thing is the well being of the citizens. Citizens must be alive to have a country to lead. Therefore, the government needs to address the basic necessities that are vital for the survival of the people. This means the government needs to address the needs of the people before other expenses,” he remarked.
Furthermore, the government should adjust its spectacles to focus on sectors that have returned benefits like agriculture and industry. There are projects like developing the tourist attraction sites in different areas of the country which have ample of advantages in the long run, but at this time, it is essential to focus on the quicker advantages that the people can get what is needed, Wossenseged said.
It was reported that there are measures taken by the federal and regional governments to control the inflation. As to him, the government should take actions carefully. It is observed that there are people who hide the basic commodities from the society. It would be good if these people do things legally, but when the government takes measures, it has to be systematic like looking for other solutions instead of closing some shops with basic commodities, the Economist added.
Jemal Mohammed (PhD), an economist for his part said that the inflation affects the people in many ways. One of it is the psychological breakdown. It is seen that when there is hiking in price or any kind of economic malfunctioning, the people’s mind starts to adapt and fix itself to the situation even it is very hard to resist.
According to Jemal, the government should do two important things regarding the inflation. The first one is the government, by hook or by crook, should control the economy and make it stable. This is the major step to be taken. As previously expressed, like the Harari Administration, the rest of the federal and state governments should identify fixed prices of the basic commodities.
The second step to be taken, as to Jemal, is the government should work on the psychological adjustment of the people towards the existing situation. When the economy is stable and the inflation starts to decline, the government should announce business reports every now and then to the people because most people may stick with the previous condition. Therefore, the government should aware the people what is going on in the country. Even, when the economy is stable, there will be suppliers who sell things with the previous price. In order to protect the society, the government must aware the people about every steps.
It was learnt that there is both subjective and real inflation in the country, and this is obvious. But the government is responsible to tackle these challenges by using different strategies and systematic approaches to protect the citizens.
The Ethiopian Herald August 14/2021
