Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) says 74 percent of credit disbursed by commercial banks went to the private sector in the last six months.
About 155 billion Birr fresh loan has been disbursed during the first half of the existing fiscal year, according to him. Explaining his administration's firm position to encourage the private sector to thrive, Abiy told members of parliament that the figure exhibited a 38 percent growth in just a year.
The share of the private sector in outstanding credit was 484.6 billion Birr (or 47 percent) until the end of last fiscal year, reflecting a 28.3 percent annual growth, while the remaining 53 percent share was taken up by public enterprises, according to National Bank of Ethiopia.
Broad money supply, according to him, grew by 15 percent since last year. Savings soared by 25 percent during the same period with deposits mobilized by commercial banks reaching 1.2 trillion Birr, an increase from 899 billion Birr in 2018/19, the PM added.
A great emphasis has been also given to strengthen domestic resource mobilization, leading to an increase in tax revenues from 176 billion Birr in 2018/19 to 228.9 billion Birr last fiscal year, according to him.
"The tax collected in the last eight months [196 billion Birr] is more than the tax revenues registered two years ago. This is a big achievement," he explained.
