PM Meles calls Ethiopia’s economy ‘healthy’

By Simegnish Yekoye

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - In response to the rising cost of living, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said only 10 percent of the Ethiopian population is affected by it, while the remainder - 90 percent - is benefiting from economic growth, which he says reflects a "healthy economy."

However, nearly all opposition parties and people with whom SSI have spoken about the rising cost of living say the economic growth the prime Minister refers to is not seen by the people.
The Prime Minister says 85% the Ethiopian population - mostly farmers and about five percent of urban people - are benefiting from the economic growth.

"I don’t know where the 90 percent of the population are living. All I know is that people are suffering from the expensive life, and we can no longer afford anything," said a civil servant woman living off 1200 birr per month, who wished to remain anonymous.
"My family includes farmers living in the northern rural parts of the country, but they are as unhappy with the current cost of living as much as I am."
Despite the 20% inflation rate, Meles in his report on economic issues to Parliament said Ethiopia is to register 10.8% economic growth, and it is a matter of time before the country has the capacity to resolve inflation and other economic problems.

United Ethiopian Democratic Party (UEDP-Medhin) member and parliament representative Merara Gudina, however, said although the report says there is high economic growth, it does not translate into bread and milk for the general public.
"Poverty is not reducing. It is in fact increasing," Mera said.
Pointing out his reservations over the healthiness of the economy, Ledetu Ayalew, leader of EUDP-Medhin, says the growth has deficiencies. One is the problem of growth distribution. "There are people who are benefiting and there are people who are left behind," Lidetu says.
"The economic growth is not beyond the report," says Temesgen Zewede, parliament representative. "The economy is healthy only for the government."

Mame Abate, who works in a government institution as a secretary, says life for her and all the people whom she knows has gone from bad to worse. "Every time there is a fuel price increase, it gets difficult for us," she says, pointing out that making it to the end of the month has become difficult. "If things continue this way, I don’t know how we will survive."