IMF economic reports have become another way for Ethiopia to attack Eritrea
Abebe Aemro Selassie, is Director of the African Department at the International Monetary Fund. Abebe, who was a former Ethiopian government employee, is accused of significantly inflating Ethiopia's GDP figures and downplaying Eritrea's GDP figures.
By J. Bonsa |
Opride
IMF’s flagship as a weapon of enemy destruction
IMF economic reports seem to have become another battlefield for Ethio-Eritrean war. While generating unrealistically high economic growth figures for Ethiopia, the organization was doing the exact opposite in Eritrea. Eritreans have long alleged that it was Zenawi’s man who was cooking data and bending facts at IMF, benefiting the regime in Addis Ababa and hurting Asmara, Ethiopia’s archenemy. Eritrean authorities have formally complained to IMF about the unethical standards — something the IMF had apparently admitted and then claimed to have adjusted some figures. But, as shown below, no such adjustments seem to have taken place, at least in the 2017 World Economic Outlook.
There are credible evidences to suggest that Eritrea’s economic growth performance was never as bad as it has been presented in IMF publications. For instance, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Abebe Selassie’s own former employer, estimated Eritrea’s economic growth rate at 7 percent and 8 percent in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
However, according to Eritrea’s GDP series reported in IMF’s 2017 World Economic Outlook, Eritrea’s real GDP growth was negative (-0.24 percent) in 2013 and 1.6 percent in 2014. Similarly, the African Development Bank reported that Eritrea’s Real GDP growth was 4.8 percent in 2015 and 3.8 percent in 2016, whereas IMF projected Eritrea’s GDP at 1.43 percent and 0.36 percent respectively.
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https://www.opride.com/2017/12/28/chris ... iopia-now/