Ethiopia’s Out- of-Control Economy !

By Girma Berhanu | University of Gothenburg

Does Ethiopia have an economy under Abiy Ahmed ?! Oh! Yeah ! It does have an economy, but it is out of the Abiy regime’s control ! How do I mean ? Abiy’s malevolent pseudo-government cannot control the fiscal deficit, the volume of money, the rate of inflation, external debt, corruption, the quality of education and training, availability of capital and entrepreneurship ! Without some kind of direct and indirect control over these macroeconomic features of the economy ,the regime as a government is not providing the necessary economic management services ,which prompts us to ask ,”is there a government in Ethiopia?!”

On the political front, we ask similar questions: Does Ethiopia have a political system, a government, a working constitution; is law and order maintained ; are human and democratic rights honoured; are the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia defended ?! The common answer to all these questions is a resounding No ! Hence the Abiy regime is rendering neither political nor economic services, which prompts us to conclude that there is no government in Ethiopia at present which duly performs the usual functions of a government!

Going back to our main theme, we can safely maintain that the Ethiopian economy is unmanaged or mismanaged ,indicating that it is an erratic ,improperly autonomous monster ! Hence inflation is on a rampage while the birr/dollar exchange rate is in free fall ! Serious government revenue shortfalls have given rise to a frenetic currency printing  fuelling both currency depreciation and inflation ! In the absence of real value-creation in terms of the production of real goods and services ,land has become a major source of income and wealth and the main feature of Abiy’s patronage system ! Smithsonian economics has miraculously converted into Abiyconomics  where “prosperity” is conjured up by magical incantations of Abiynian voodoo economics !