The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecasts Ethiopia’s consumer price would drop to a single digit.
IMF forecasts Ethiopia’s real GDP growth will go up to 8.7 percent by 2022, while its projection for 2021 is two percent which was stated as 6.1 percent in 2020. According to the IMF estimation, the country GDP growth will stand at 8 percent by 2026.
The movement of consumer price estimation is 13.1 percent for this year and 8 percent by 2022 that was 20.4 percent in 2020.
It has projected that the deficit of current account balance is to be narrowed to 3.6 percent in 2021, while it would extend to 3.9 percent in next year, which was 4.6 percent for the year in 2020.
In the latest history of Ethiopia, the biggest current account balance deficit was registered in 2015 and 2016 that was 11.7 percent and 9.2 percent respectively.
IMF on its latest WEO that released on Wednesday April 6 evening highlighted that high uncertainty surrounds the global economic outlook, primarily related to the path of the pandemic.
It said that after an estimated contraction of negative 3.3 percent in 2020, the global economy is projected to grow at 6 percent in 2021, moderating to 4.4 percent in 2022.
“The contraction for 2020 is 1.1 percentage points smaller than projected in the October 2020 WEO, reflecting the higher-than-expected growth outturns in the second half of the year for most regions after lockdowns were eased and as economies adapted to new ways of working,” it added.
Ethiopia’s consumer price to drop, forecasts IMF
Partnership signed between Total Ethiopia, Bruh Entertainments for the distribution of CANAL+
A partnership agreement between TOTAL Ethiopia S.C and Bruh Entertainments PLC, the distributor of CANAL+ was signed on Tuesday April 6 at Hyatt Regency Hotel. The partnership agreement is signed by Thibault Lesueur, Managing Director of Total Ethiopia and Tewodros Abraham, CEO of Bruh Entertainments PLC.
The partnership will provide an access to CANAL+ offers in the point-of-sale booths inside TOTAL Service Stations in Addis Ababa and upcountry for product sales and marketing activities.
This partnership will substantially enhance customers’ convenience to buy CANAL+ products and services. In addition to Fuel and Lubricants, TOTAL Ethiopia continues developing its value-added services to its customers through different diversified activities including Café, Restaurant, Car Wash, ATM and Tire Services.
TOTAL believes that this partnership demonstrates its strategy to provide one-stop services closer to its customers.
Ismail Omar Guelleh re-elected as Djibouti leader
Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh was re-elected for a fifth term as president with more than 98 percent of the vote, according to provisional results announced early on Saturday April 10.
About 215,000 citizens were registered to vote in the ballot pitting Ismail Omar Guelleh, 73, against a businessman and a political newcomer Zakaria Ismail Farah.
Counting started shortly after polling stations closed on Friday April 9, in the Horn of Africa nation, which overlooks one of the world’s busiest trade routes at the crossroads between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
“President Ismail Omar Guelleh obtained 167,535 votes, which is 98.58 percent,” Interior Minister Moumin Ahmed Cheick told public broadcaster RTD early on Saturday, adding that confirmed results would be released soon by the Constitutional Council.
Independent election observers said the process went smoothly, with no reports of misconduct.
In a social media post early on Saturday, Ismail Omar Guelleh wrote, “Thank you for your trust, thank you for Djibouti! Together, let’s continue!”
Earlier, after voting in the capital where most of Djibouti’s one million people reside, Guelleh praised the trouble-free conduct of the electoral exercise.
Dressed in immaculate white traditional robes, he said he was “very, very confident” of victory, after placing his vote in a transparent ballot box.
Zakaria Ismail Farah, a 56-year-old cleaning products importer, ended up with less than 5,000 votes, according to the provisional results.
Ahmed Tidiane Souare, the head of an African Union (AU) observer mission, said all candidates were free to send their officials to any polling station.
Zakaria Ismail Farah, who had styled himself as the “flag bearer of poor Djiboutians”, had alleged unfair treatment during the election campaign, including that he was not provided security at his rallies.
The lord of the ring passed away
Known around the world as ‘Lord of the Ring’, for inventing laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding to treat morbid obesity professor and surgeon Mitiku Belachew has died at the age of 78 in Liege, Belgium on Thursday, April 8.
Born into a family of 9 in 1942, in a rural area where there were no schools, he tended to cows and goats from the time he was a small child. Then, when he turned 12 he heard about a school far away. He went there and made the most of the opportunity, graduating just 7 years later. This initiative and drive became a trademark of his life as he learned French to study at a Belgium university when there was not a medical school here and invented a way to save the lives of those who were grossly overweight.
Professor Mitiku was a surgeon of Ethiopian origin practicing obesity surgery since 1975. He was one of the pioneer surgeons for laparoscopic surgery. He developed the Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) technique for the treatment of morbid obesity. Since
then, successful surgical workshops have been organized to which Prof. Mitiku had trained more than 300 surgeons from all over the world on this procedure. He also used to teach LAGB in many places around the World. He was proctoring FDA approved clinical trial programs of LAGB in more than 15 university centers in the USA since 1995.
Professor Mitiku in the last few years wrote a book entitled ‘The Shepherd Became A Surgeon’ that was translated in Amharic and English from the original French version. The book focuses on the life history of the professor who managed to become a world renowned Doctor from being a shepherd in a small village.
The professor and surgeon, has lived a life that truly inspires each and every one of us to rise above our circumstances. Whenever there was an obstacle he overcame it.
He also brought tools and experience with him to Ethiopia in the last couple of years where he was working to train the next generation of doctors. Furthermore, he inspired others to say no to limitations and encouraged them to use their talents to enrich the lives of others.
His relentless desire to inspire others is what led to the translation of his book to Amharic and English from the original French version; so as to light the path of others with the much needed motivation and zeal during these times.
“The book is an autobiography. It mainly focuses on how I went from being a herder in a very small rural city to a surgical doctor travelling all over the world. It’s written in French but now it’s translated to English. It’s a popular book with French speaking people,” Mitiku once told Capital in an ever so jovial manner. “It is also translated in Amharic with a title ‘Eregnaw Hakim’. I hope it will reach more people and inspire and motivate them.”
