Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that Ethiopia's external debt, which stood at $23 billion six years ago, has been reduced to $4.5 billion following a successful rescheduling.

" The economy is growing without recourse to foreign loans ," the head of government told the House of People's Representatives, the lower house of Parliament, on Tuesday.

" We have built a system that relies on Ethiopia's own capacity ," he added.

Mr. Ahmed delivered a strong defense of his economic reform program, presenting Ethiopia as a country that has turned the page on years of crisis.

He indicated that his government had spent 440 billion birr on subsidies to stabilize inflation, which has now been reduced to 11.7%, its lowest level since the launch of its reform program.

He specified that the majority of these funds were spent on fuel, fertilizers and public sector salaries.

" We have used every possible lever to reduce the cost of living ," he told lawmakers, attributing the slowdown in price increases to school feeding programs and monetary tightening.

The Prime Minister also praised the success of the Homegrown Economic Reform program, launched in 2019 to correct macroeconomic imbalances and modernize the economy.

He stated that public revenues, which stood at 170 billion birr at the start of the reforms, are expected to reach 1 trillion birr this year. He added that the Ethiopian economy is projected to experience double-digit growth.

However, critics believe that the Prime Minister's speech falls within a familiar rhetoric: that of a celebration of macroeconomic figures without any real explanation of the distribution of the fruits of growth or the impact of debt service on households.

While inflation is slowing, some analysts point out, food and rent prices remain high, and public sector wage increases are partly absorbed by the soaring cost of urban living.