Ethiopia’s economic growth has slowed down to 8% in 2015/2016 fiscal year, marking its slowest growth in nearly a decade.
The country had previously averaged growth of 10% over the last ten years, emerging as one of the fastest developing economies in the world.
A new rail link between Addis Ababa and Djibouti was opened in October
The planning commission says this year’s projected growth of 11% had been hit by a devastating drought that has affected the harvest in large areas of the country.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), had earlier warned that Ethiopia’s economy would shrink to just 4.5% this year due to the drought, which is the worst in more than thirty years.
But the government dismissed those figures, insisting on a higher growth figure of 8%.
Some analysts have also predicted that economic growth could further be affected by the anti-government protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions that have seen dozens of foreign owned factories and flowers farms attacked by demonstrators.
Ethiopia’s economy is largely reliant on agriculture but has seen rapid growth in the manufacturing and service sectors.