Travel Guide |
April 18, 2006


Ethiopia registers economic growth: fact or fiction?

“The Meles regime knows perfectly that the experience and long record of the opposition leadership put violently by him in jail fully demonstrate that their core values have always been to bring democratic transition and transformation to Ethiopia…” Network of Ethiopian Scholars (NES): February 21, 2006


“The impressive figures regarding the growth in food production do not derive from the greatest authority in the field, the World’s Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO. Nor do they derive from the World Bank or the development program of the UN, UNDP, but from an Ethiopian research institute controlled by the government of the same person [Meles Zenawi], who receives the [Yara] award for his extraordinary contribution to fight hunger in the country.” – Norwatch: Quetionable Facts & Figrures in Ethiopia’s “Economic Growth.”

ADDIS ABABA – At one time Asfaw Tekle Hotel and Merab Hotel may have employed hundreds of workers when their booming years spanned generations in the Ethiopian capital. Today the doors of the once-famed businesses remain closed to their patrons after the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi shut them down for respecting a civil disobedience order called by the popular opposition Kinijit.

Since the government lost in the May 2005 elections, it has been a year of great economic and political turmoil in Ethiopia, with the one-man dictatorship surviving on a nationwide terror that has produced at least five concentration camps. The government’s measures are quietly being met with the people’s silent killer: an economic boycott that has impacted everything from the national carrier to giant businesses. For instance, a boycott has brought state-owned breweries like the Gondar-based Dashen down to bunkruptcy.

But for the 15-year-old government of Meles Zenawi whose staple diet has been media manipulation and misinformation, all is OK and the economy is a horse galloping mightier than ever before. Read on:

“Addis Ababa – Independent research has confirmed that Ethiopia’s growth recent growth activity has been remarkable.

Ethiopia has managed an average GDP growth of seven percent over the past three years and brought inflation down from 15 percent to five percent. The figures, which are the most impressive amongst the six African countries striving to attain the millennium development goals (MDGs) and this has resulted in sceptics as to the accuracy of the figures.

However, research compiled by the African Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Food Programme (WFP) has confirmed the country’s noteworthy growth.

Researchers have linked the growth to government’s role in diversifying the economy away from agriculture while searching for new markets.

The government said that growth would remain sustainable as it increases partnership between agriculture and industry sectors.” (AFP)

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