Ethiopia is close to exhausting its foreign-currency reserves and may need a loan of $1 billion to fund food and fuel imports to avoid economic growth from slowing, an economist for the International Monetary Fund said.
Ethiopia, Africa’s largest coffee producer, has enough foreign currency to cover less than two months of imports, Muche Netsere, an economist with the IMF, said in a telephone interview from the capital Addis Ababa. Ethiopian imports totaled $1.6 billion in the three months to Jan. 8, the nation’s fiscal second quarter.
Without $1 billion in bridge financing, Ethiopia’s growth may fall to an estimated 6 percent from 7 percent by the end of next year and to 6.5 percent by 2010 from 7.5 percent, Netsere said.
Getachew Admassu, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, couldn’t be reached for comment when his office was contacted today. Alemayehu Kebede, spokesman for the National Bank of Ethiopia, didn’t answer calls to his mobile phone.
By Jason McLure, (Bloomberg)