For the past three years, Ethiopia was the talk of town, with leading institutions terming it one of Africa’s fastest rising economies.
The Ethiopian Economic Association in its preliminary projections recently said that Ethiopia’s GDP will drop by 10 per cent if the pandemic persists for at least for six months.
The UNECA estimates that Covid-19 will “shave 2.9 percentage points off this fiscal year’s economic growth in Ethiopia”.
As response, experts from the Ethiopia Economics Association say commercial banks need to reschedule loan repayments and write off interest payments for severely affected sectors until the shock is abated.
The National Bank of Ethiopia, the Association suggests, needs to consider reserve rate relaxation to enhance banking liquidity and discuss reducing interest rates to stimulate the economy.
