Ethiopia not adversely affected by shocks effects, IMF says
June 11, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that it had approved Ethiopia $58.7 million under its Exogenous Shocks Facility (ESF) arrangement to allow the horn of African nation deal with the effects of the global recession on its balance of payments.
IMF said the authorities in Ethiopia have been successfully implementing a macroeconomic adjustment package help lower inflation and build up international reserves as agreed in the ESF-supported program
“At end-2009, consumer price inflation had declined sharply to the single digits and international reserves recovered to just over 2 months of imports, helped by strong donor inflows and financing from the IMF,” IMF said in a press release.
“Overall, the negative impact of the global recession has not been as severe as expected.”
Ethiopia sees its economy to grow by 10.2 % this fiscal yesr.IMF however projected the country’s economy to ease by 7 percent in 2009/10, a review to earlier forecast an output of 7-7.5 percent.
It further said all of the quantitative performance criteria and indicative targets for end-December 2009 were met. The structural measures covered by the Fund-supported program were also implemented.
“The approval will enable Ethiopia to access special drawing rights(SDR) of 40.11 million (about US$58.7 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 113.65 million (about US$166.2 million),” IMF said.
(ST)