nazret.com

i have said it long ago a $1 is worth about 22 birr. in my calculation...i thing it has a little bit to go still.

bad for the dwellers good for expatriates and creepy tourist diasporas.

This is a 44 % devaluation in a year (it was 11.3 to 1$ usd in July/2009). What is going on? Are we turning to a Zimbabwe?

Look it may look great for my holidays in Ethiopia but for those who live there I do truly do not see the benefit.

God help them

"Y'all remember what IMF told the Greeks, and most recently the Romanians. Either listen to our recommendations or else you will be robbed of everything.

I assume the Woyannes are not going to be happy being dictated. However, it has no choice but to pay the loans for all the roads construction boom seemingly real economic growth thanks to the achievements of the regime, the fact is coming out. The regime waited for the election to go through, and asked for EU to hold on to their report, drew a five year plan while hoodwinking the IMF to hold on to the red slip. Now the truth has come out, Woyanne's economic growth is all lie, its all borrowed money. Pay back is going to be a real biatch. Greeks and Romanians are going through them at the moment, in developed nations its called austerity measures, and in the Woyanne ruled space its called trouble brewing. As it is the people are poor, most are barely making ends-meet, add this inflation they will start to see red like bulls.Some Woyannes were trying hard to convince us the country's economy was growing 12% annually, while it was the interest adding on borrowed money."

I don't see the need for the devaluation, particularly when we know there is an inflation risk - already one of the highest in the world.

If the economy has been on record with double digit growth consecutively for the past 7 years (as Meles and his cronies claim), why bother about tinkering with the exchange rate?

And what will all these mean to the Ethiopian poor? (more than 90% of the 80 million or so of the population).

Awokish awokis siluat metsehfun atebech, an old Ethiopian proverb went!

It will have a desasterous consequence on the ruined ecomony of the nation. late alone the actual economic loss, the pschological repercussion in iteslf is not a point to underestimate.

Ethiopia under Tigria are in dead hell and what we wait for now?This small gruop so callad Woyane are nothing but ,we,the Ethiopians are so bad to know who is our enemay really.stand and fight to this popput gang.

we will be like Ertrea 1$ =400 nakiffa near future .and also as i see the news different agencies they dont accept our growth by 14% so if it is true growth why Ethiopia gov. show statstics to different economist?i think western leaders will know everything about EPRDF

I potive tha many TPLF thugs became rich or millioners overnight.they knew before hand to hoard their dollar. FOX, WE NEED TO RISE UP AND ELIMINATE THESE PARASITES.

Dear Nazret.com,

This website has become my eye , and my mouth now. I wished to comment issue, but I was looking how I can do it. Now Nazret.com did it again.

Must I think investing in Nazret.com to make Nazret.com an Ethiopian Al-Jizira.

You do have the tenacity, gut, patience,... to be an Ethiopian Al-Jizira. This the only website which does not focus on hate only. It is accommodates any Ethiopian unlike the others like the other Ethiopian website.

Check all the Ethiopians websites and compare this website. I am puzzled if the person who running this website is an Ethiopia? reason, most Ethiopians are filled with hate, biase, prejudice, hate, ethnic, tribe, anything you can name,... this is a different website. The otherwebsites are not there to allow people to communicate, but to force their hatred, biases, ethnic outlook ,... on others.

Bravo, ewnetm Nazret.

I think said something about the devalueing of the money. I have never come cross any news or books that tell me a govenment devalues its money for good. This is the first time in my entire life who a government devalues its money on purpose.

Zimbabwe money became useless because European sanction a punishment after white farmers were chased from Zimbabwe.

In Nigeria in 1986 the money was devalued because the government took loan and the loan was packed with the Stracture Adjustment Programme under the premise of Washington Consensus. Why WB, IMF,... impose thier devaluation?

Good questions, their stock stakeholder multinational corporations will take over the poor nations and that is how WORLD BANK, IMF,... keeps Europeans Economy in steady state.

We all know that WB, IMF,... were established to safegaurd the economy of the western alliance so that they Europe and others parners do not face any detrimental economic criss like they faced during first and second world.

What happened in Nigeria in 1984 to 1990, it is only Nigerians who knows what happened to them after their money was devalued by the force by WB and IMF.

life became hell to Nigerians and the country was invaded by foreign investors and multionational stockholder corporations. The country was immersed into a national economic crisis, then the corporations and WB,IMF,... were watching as spectators when the people were languishing in unforeseen horrible life conditions. The government ofNigeria lost control of the country and the nations was run by corrupt Nigerians who benefitted from the WB scum. Then the government had to intervene to reverse the situation to the previous states. But it was too late and Nigerians has to go suffer, and Nigeria still remains stuck because of all that.

Now we have a regime which does the same mistake many counties did before.

We told you the economic growth in Ethiopia is a lie. It is the WB,IMF,... scum again to manipulate the useless leaders pyschologically . Can you notice, external economic institutions publish articles that say there is no economic development in Ethiopia, but WB,IMF,... oppose that by saying there is development. Why? do u think WB, IMF,... more bona fide or credible than those other external isntitutions?

There is a saying in Tigrignea," Kbelewaya Zibelu Aba gunbahs, Zagra Yibeluwa." I do not know the name of Aba gumbah, but there is this huge black bird in Ethiopia which is not tamed, wild and which is not edible. What the Tigrignea sayings says is that if someone wants to eat that bird which is not edible, he or she will give it the name of the edible bird like fowl ( Kokah in Tigrignea which is also wild bird but edible). WB, IMF,... preaching about growth in Ethiopia is not genuine.

By the way, WB, IMF,... has nothing to do with development any country except to do financial marketing and to exploit other nations as much as possible and to safequard their economy.

According me,

We Ethiopians have to forget all these toothless political parties like TPLF,olf, ONFL,MEDRKE,... and unite and oppose all these before it is too late. Otherwise we are going to watch helplessly when our people are taken hostage by foreign companiers.

There is no benefit for any Ethiopian by devalueing the national currency. It is foreign investors who benefit from this. Ethiopians will watch helplessly when their country is invaded by foreign companies.

To believe that foreign investos will bring development to the country and to eradicate poverty is a good wish.

Unfortunately, This govenment we have a termimally ill govenment. Everything this government does is against the country's national interest?

The government has done the following :

1. Deliberately destroyed Ethiopian Navy to develop Ethiopia.

2. Land-locked Ethiopia so that Ethiopia can develop.

3. Selling land to Arabs, Indians,... to develop Ethiopia

4. Selling Ethiopian Teleocom to France to develop Ethiopia

5. It is in the process of selling the national bank to City Bank , an American bank based in york.

Everything is on sell in Ethiopia. Now to make it worse the money is devalued. Where on earth does devaulation ones own currency benefit? Never heard of such story in my entire life. I do not think there is any book written that supports this cliam of devaluing ones own money to benefit citizen? May be in the new book of Meles Zenawi. The book of Meles Zenawi is bizzare, weird, ... I gues Meles Zenawi lives in other planet in his mind and otherswise, he would not do all these crazy things to the 86 million people.

Meles Zenawi, everytime he get elected by 99.6%, he is damaging Ethiopia by 99.6%, nothing. He does will in destroying the country.

A national and co-ordinated disobedience is the only solution. We do not need to carry AK-47 and cross terrains as TPLF, ... and others are doing. We need to unite and stop this in one day.

Wake up and save your nation

That's why Meles was saying the economy will grow ti 1 trillion birr!!! Priny baby print!!!! In 5 years we will have 5 trillion birr in circulation!!!!

I meant Print baby print (birr)!!!!

If I was the leader, if want to discourage import, I would have increased the import duty by 50% or more or increase the value of the money instead of devalueing the money just sell everything in the country for everyone who can show me any amount of dollar.

Meles Zenawi, you are filled with insanity and you are sworn to destory the country. The more you stay , the more damage you are incuring on the poor people. You are wasting one generation time and you destroy the ocunty every year. Shame on you

Peter Smoking some Stuff??

Peter is cementing his reputation as one of the MOST unprofessional reporters in the entire world by describing an economy growing by 10% as a struggling economy. People have always wondered what Peter is smoking when he writes his scribbles?? Sometimes U have to wonder what Peter does in Addis?? He looks like a kind of guy who enjoys few shots of whiskey and a joint or two. I believe we all can remember Peter also told us during the May election that Tigrai is a battleground state!! That’s Peter for U!

ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር

TO prove my claims on the evilness of WB, IMF,... IMF has actually responded with happiness for the devaluation. Why? This is done by them and it will benefit them.

This all what I said on my previous comments. I did not even IMF was thrilled by the devaluations of our money. I speculated it must have been done by their order. Now their response confirms my claim. It is them who will benefit from this devaluation and eventually, the useless regime will have no control in the country like Nigeria in 20 years ago.

This is exactly that will happen when the economy is falsly said to grow by a funny figures. Neger si gemer endezih new.

I think the Woyane government is having dire problems with its foreign exchange reserves, which currently can cover only a two month import bill. They are also desperate to ‘achieve’ their 15% economic growth each year till 2015 and ‘eliminate’ hunger at the same time. They need more dollars to achieve their over ambitious goals.

Their logic appears that if you cannot attract enough capital through foreign direct investment and diaspora remittance, then devalue Birr. On the face of it, devaluation may help a country tackle its balance of payments problems by exporting more, producing import substitutes locally, and reducing its deficit through time. In reality however there is no significant relationship between devaluing one’s currency and reducing trade deficit. Most developing countries, especially those in Africa, have undervalued currencies but they have persistently experienced enormous trade deficit over the past three decades. Ethiopia, for example has been devaluing its currency continuously from 2.06 Birr/dollar in 1991 to around 16.5 birr/ dollar in 2010, which means Birr has been devalued by more than 800% over the past 19 years! By contrast Ethiopia’s trade balance has become all the worse through time surging from a paltry 1 billion dollar to a whopping 7 billion dollar in the same period.

In theory, a country can manipulate its currency to improve its international competitiveness and trade performance and increase its trade surplus and international reserves. Tiny, poor and primary product exporting economies like Ethiopia may be tolerated to keep their currency undervalued but it is a different story when it comes to powerful export-led economies like China. You know what the US congressmen have been saying to China over the past five years: let your renminbi appreciate or face protectionist measures. After so many threats and rants, at times mediated through DS Khan of the IMF, China finally agreed to revalue its currency.

An inquisitive mind would ask: why do the IMF and the US push poor and fragile economies like Ethiopia to devalue their currencies while require China and other emerging economies to revalue? After all, aren’t China and Ethiopia both developing countries? If it is good for Ethiopia to devalue its currency, how come it is not good for China?

Economists pls answer this question

Addis zemen

If you are Gurage why do you hate Dr Berhanu so much?
Anyways am not going to Ethiopia anytime soon. I wish you to meet another lovely woman like me in Soddo. If you are so much occupied about me, we will arrange to meet after your holiday

When Edi Amin called Uganda's Bank manager to print more Uganda money, the manager said that Uganda money has become shit (useless). President Amin drove to the bank and told the manager that you call Uganda money Toilet paper? And, there he shot him on the spot. Very soon, Melese with his lost, crazy mind will do the same. The good thing is before he gets there; Addis' angry mob will catch him and cut him into hundred pieces, before BIRR becomes toilet paper.

Someday one might need a duffel bag to carry the Birr to go to the markets.Wallets and pockets are not gonna be big enough for the PAPER, Birr!!

Continued from the first comment


devaluation also impacts the country's debt problem negatively. when birr is devalued from 2 to 16 birr per dollar, the country's debt demominated in the local currency (birr) increases eight fold, that is, for evry dollar we now ofer 16 rather than 2 birr notes

currency devaluation is not a choice when the economy is highly dependent on imported capital goods. as Teodros Mekonnen noted in the report, these essential plant and equipment imports cannot be produced loccally or cannot be cut dramatically anytime soon, thus devaluation has little effect here. in fact it will lead to imported inflation as imports become more expensive after devaluation

it may even kill remittance. assuming that devaluation does not lead to immediate inflation, a DC dishwasher or parking lot attendant may reduce the amount of dollars he sends home to family and friends.

That worthless Birr still needs more devaluation .Of course it will be hard for people that live in Ethiopia and the government should come up with a remedy .For example in India ,cosumer goods are always affordable even if with devaluation of their money .

God bless Mingstu Hailemariam who left the country's Birr @2.15 against the doller.

What is next guys!! a loaf of bread costing $1000.00 birr?
I think we are heading to a point of no return - everything in Ethiopia being wortlhless!!!

This is Hell,

The poor neck is choped down mercilessly with the sword of global economists.

The burden is on the shoulder of the poor. Who like the poor unless the poor could not stand for themselves. Literally His ( the poor) blood will be sucked and their bones will be chewed if he has nothing to pay for the evils.

If $1 dollar is 17 Birr, how can one live with his 600 Birr/month?

Oh my, Poor Absynians you are on the Avenue of death.

Redeem your identity!

our Economy is in a strong position hahahah

Wise decision based on sound economic principles.

I take it that Ethiopia uses a fixed exchange rate system since Ethiopia doesn’t have a well developed financial system. Countries that are tied to international financial markets are mature countries (e.g. Brazil, Chile, Israel and Poland, etc.) could afford to adopt flexible exchange rate system.

A fixed exchange rate pegs the value of a currency to a strong foreign currency like the US dollar or the European euro. This is good news for developing economies since it would build confidence among Ethiopian consumers and is also associated with a lower inflation rates. However, the disadvantage is that Ethiopia would be more vulnerable to currency crises as well as banking crises. Id devlauation is not affecting import as Mekonen said, the central bank might have a crisis on its hand. Peace. ~Aklilu

it is in a very sad direction we are heading......what is the ethiopian govemerment thinking.....as if we dont have already poor people in the country we are making a working middle class poorer.... making options for corruption...... and a huge repercussion in draining the limited skilled man power .....leading to brain drain ....
we usually imported food and with a devalued money ...well more money we import still food....does that make sense???....duh sad sad sad seriously

Well , my dollar worths more now....but I dont knw how this helps my country where almost everything is imported from China....i know i skipped some chapters in my ECO-101 course, but doesnt feel right when u see it with common sense...anyways it works for me,if u ask me.

the devluation might be needed as the forcasting of the economy growth was a bogus. One thing thing the government take seriously is inflation and the mischevious merchants in the local market will take this as an excuse and increase on all daily consumptions while the income of the ordinary labourer remains the same. It also should be announced to the public and report any price increase on the tennants and other utilities. It is always the selfish bussines men who make a big profit out of such crisis. Let us not blame the government in every situation. We may have our say in a constractive manner.

where are the TPLF/WOYANE posse?
Ethiopia under PM.I-know-it-all and assorted quasi-intellectuals is heading back to stone age.

We have two diffrent reporting on our currency devaluetion on this web site,by two diffrent news agencies,VOA & REUTERS. Can you see the deffrence? VOA being a G7 and a daispora opposition politicians spokesperson trys to make it sound totally negative and the end of Ethiopia,To make it suitable for the dooms day preachers and Ethiopia bashers beating their usual hatred drums. While the report by REUTERS is fair and balanced,which is not based only on negative assumptions but on reallity.
Currency flactuation is a norm and unavoidable reallity in this compitative era of world economy. At one point last year,the US was forced to devalue its currency repitedly against the Euro.that is an example it could happen to any country. So our educated people and the know it alls,please take it easy on yourselves.

The Meles people may devaluate the currency, but they cannot devaluate the spirits of the Ethiopian people.

Gezaee H. [Visitor]

"...if want to discourage import, I would have increased the import duty by 50% or more or increase the value of the money instead of devalueing the money"

If, for instance, you increase tariff rates on imported Chinese electronic goods by 50%, you must expect the Chinese authorities to retaliate by raising import tariffs on coffee, sesame, leather and other products originating from Ethiopia. In effect you are inviting for a vicious trade war among trading partners which would eventually culminate in aggressive protectionist measures including bureaucratic restrictions and quotas. Such unilateral, ‘mercantilist’ policy of benefiting your country at the expense of others is not a healthy move in the new global economic order, which is largely based on bilateral and multilateral negotiations than a unilateral resort to increasing tariff rates as you wish. In fact, these days increasing number of countries are either members of the WTO or active participants in regional trade blocks that promote free exchange of goods and services, and lowering tariffs and other trade barriers has been the norm than the exception. The NAFTA (Mexico, Canada, the US), COMESA (south and east African countries), and the EU are some good examples in this case. While members of these regional blocks are free to move their goods with out any barrier, they adopt common foreign trade policy ( i. e. they erect common external tariffs) vis-à-vis non-member countries. So for every trade arrangement it is a tit-for-tat scenario.

But it does not mean that the rich countries treat the poor ones as equal. Infact, the West has devised several support mechanisms that provide preferential trade benefits to low income countries. Clinton (apparently intoxicated by his Monica affairs) had initiated the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), while Europe also came up with Everything But Arms (EBA)---which cynics dubbed it as Everything But Agriculture—in reference to the EU’s unfair farm subsidies that cripple the African small holder cultivator. Though their impact on African export growth is minuscule (aexcept oil rich Nigeria, Angola etc), AGOA and EBA illustrate that negotiation and cooperation, not unilateral actions, is the route to cure your ailing economy. This norm applies even to the most powerful economies.

"...A national and co-ordinated disobedience is the only solution. We do not need to carry AK-47 and cross terrains as TPLF, ... and others are doing. We need to unite and stop this in one day..."

Can you pass whatever CRACK u r smocking cause we r tired of being in the real world.

addis zemen [Visitor]

"At one point last year,the US was forced to devalue its currency repitedly against the Euro."

mechem balemawoqih alsedbihm. gin astemirihalehu.

Firstly, the US was not forced to devalue its currency. Ethiopia maintains 'managed' exchange rate regime where by the central bank/government intervenes to move the rate up or down as it wishes and leave it to fluctuate 'freely' for 24 hours. the US however has a freely floating exchage rate system and, unlike Ethiopia, the government does not determine the rate every morning. It is fully determined by the market forces of demand and supply for dollar around the world, and particularly in finacial meccas like London and New York.

What happened in 2009 was all the work and machination of currency speculators who took advantage of the excessively accommodative monetary policy in the US under Fed chairman Alan Greenspan and the debt problems in the five euro-zone countries, viz, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain (the so called PIIGGS). In addition, this occurred against the backdrop of global finacial crisis that began in the US and spread in the rest of the world. There are so many moving parts and you cannot single out a particular factor and link it to currancy movements in one or another country.

Maaza,

I think your read my mind. The devaluation has nothing to do with planning from the leadership in Ethiopia. I believe Meles was given a stark warning to devalue the money not for the sake of whatsoever problem we have at home, but for the sake of thier interest. WB, IMF,... have been doing all along for almost the past three decades and result has been a disaster to those countries who take thier package.

I do not how the deficit can be improved in this way. Why did not all the Europeans and USA devalued thier money when they were in depression last year?

As you know WB, IMF,... never give any money unless one is going to obey thier agenda without any questions. I guess Meles has not to yield to them either for the money he has taken or for another money is he is taking.

What type of development or improvement can come at the expense of the suffering people?

As Maaza state clearly, to improve the internal financial situation, the best bet was to promote local products. But the regime does not like anything Ethiopian. Meles does not like Ethiopian product. You may not know, but the cottage industries we have had are now closed because they could not compete with cheap and poor quality of product of China.

So what is going to happen? inflation will increase, and it will be hard for the citizen to live in Ethiopia. This devaluation will obviously bring WB, IMF,... stockholders to Ethiopia. Who will benefit? It will be IMF, WB, and its stock-holders and the citizen will suffer.

Very recently the Ethiopian telecom is sold to France. The selling of Ethiopian Telecom was also blessed by the world bank. They said it is a good sign of privatization. Neoliberal is kicking Meles' asses very well. The so called Developmenta state is gone. What will follow next? Meles will hand the bank, EELCA,...

Then he will be given instructions to privatize everything and to cut all public spendings. Then free market will kick in Ethiopia in full swing. That is neoliberal free market democracy.

After 20 years of one man experiment and complete failure, Meles is no selling Ethiopia on bazzar to anyone who can show him dollar.

Shame on Meles Zenawi

Gezaee H,

I salute the Government of Ethiopia the action they took to devalue the currency.

The advantage will be curve import or decrease import and increases hard currency reserve to the country.
It will reduce unfavorable trade balance and reduce trade deficit for the country.
It will increase export from Ethiopia.
It will accelerate economic growth in the country.
It will increase employment opportunities from the demand of Ethiopian goods from Abroad.
It will discourage black market for hard currency exchanges in markato.
All Ethiopian export goods will be attractive to foreign countries to buy them.
The only disadvantage is inflation to the local market but as economic activities pick up and employment opportunities will offset the diminishing birr value to buy goods in local markets.

Gezaee H,

You are absolutely wrong on this field. Foreign countries will not gain from their trade partners by devalue their currency. The net effect is very disadvantage to other countries devalued Ethiopian currencies. The WB and IMF encourage Ethiopia to devalue is to boost it hard currency reserve and to reduce trade deficit and spore economic growth and open employment opportunities to the massive unemployed Ethiopians. It attracts foreign investors to set up factories in Ethiopia for export.

This is a very wise policy based on sound economic principles. It's not of course apparent to most people in here as expected from the not so bright.

ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር

To all readers let me give you good example the Ethiopian Government is absolutely right the action they took to devalue Ethiopian Birr.

The American congress and labor Unions are pushing hard to Obama administration to push China to boost its currency value in order American companies can sell their goods to china and jump start the American depressed economy right now, reduce unemployment and America has huge trade deficit with china and want to reduce annual deficit with China.

Not So Bright Ones,

In principle currency devaluation can lead to a very small of the fraction of the devaluatin % in inflation. So in this case the percentage of the devaluation is 17%. Therfore any inflation will be a small fraction of 17%, which is pretty small. Let's say it leads to 5% of 17% which is what usually expected(5% of devaluation percent) the inflation would be about 1%, which is quite manageable given Ethiopia's inflation right now is about 6%. So, it means inflation would rise to about 7%. Hope now the not so bright ones have some little insight about a subject which is way too over the head! Obviously!

ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር

Dear Maaza,

I do not mean to rule out all co-operative trading. I agree with you in the principle of mutual benefits between countries there has to be a fair trade transaction. But what there must be always a balance in between, otherwise, if I sacrifice my benefit, at the end I am going to be the loser.

I justdo not see how this valuation will benefit the country?

Look, you are devalueing your money? then what is happening? you are virtually disabling the local market. For instance if there are Ethiopians who are import capital asset inventories, they will no longer able to import. Practically, the citizen will be out of competition or out of business. Who is going to import everything? foreigners will easily import them and you are opening the market for foreign investors at the expense of the citizens.

At the same time, it is true, this may allow the regime to stay on power too. Investors will invest their capital in Ethiopia which includes WB, IMF,... and they will support the regime and we will not have any change in the country because they will would like Meles to stay as long as possible and they can continue to exploit the people.

I am agains this policy. I am admire Mengistu Hailemariam now who kept the money at constant dollar during all that difficult time of his time.

Eritrean Nakfa is better than Ethiopian birr. But I never come across of any knowledge that teaches me one has to devalue national currency for good. I have never heard of such thing and I do not get the logic of devalueing ones currency for good.

Dear Yoni,

I know you would not like to hear any different opinion that is not in agreement with you.

if you tired, why you do not take a rope and hang yourself? That is the best world to go into if you can not live with others?

Birr devaluated by more than 16% percent yet no local government owned and supported report it. Yet Addis Zemen complain about VOA's report vs Reuter.

Maaza,..mozaza,

Your erratic and tempramental behavior is giving me the chills. RU some kind of mental patient or it is just being hyper? "Mechem balemawekhi alsedbhim" that is your problem. You are so hostile. No wonder you have some kind of ID crisis. Take it easy. Don't always think your idea is right. Copying and pasting doesn't necessarily make you an economist.
Denqem astemeresh moteshal!

BAD NEWS for poor Ethiopians.

THE LAND IS DOOMED.

This impllies atleast a 17% increase on imorted goods. To cope with this increase the salary of emloyeed citezen shall also increase by the same proportion. otherwise sitll the poor are going to carry the burden.

Devaluating currancy at this rate induce a great shock to the economy and the purchasing ability of the people. This is really sad.. Why the government fails to take the social security of the people in to account?

NAKFA $22.00 = $ 1.00 U.S DOLLAR
BIRR " " " "

ZORO ZORO MEGBIAW CHIRARO !!!

Oh JUstin.
It is okay to support Meles,that is your right.But you can not deny the simple fact that Voodoo economy is not the way forward.I read your comments and you are a die hard liar,paid and bought to fill your belly....what a shame people like exsist.

The eternally ill-fated Ethiopians take a sack full of birr to the market & return home with merely a handful of groceries. The heaviness of the birr is far grater than the item (goods) they buy. The urgency to accomplish a miracles economic growth that bears a resemblance to Zimbabwe’s is truly underway! Well done Tigre cockroaches! You are astonishingly competent to make Ethiopia a middle income country in 5 years time!

I am not good at economics and very naive about the implication devaluation will have in the various aspects of our growth back home. With my introductory course at some point and its direct impact on day to day life (mainly on the poor ) I have the feeling that devaluation is not healthy for any country that depend on imported items. For those of us who make our earning in hard currency we may not feel the pinch, in fact some of may enjoy the advantage, at the cost of our own people, BAD! By the way I am very impressed by Maaza on how she narrates her argument based on simple to understand logic. You are very analytical girl! Wish to read from so many of such outstanding habeshas. Finally, lets pray for the better of our country. It seems the present regime does not care whatsoever.

Oh . . .i just make $357,268.41 ethiopian birr today . . .ask me how . . .Woyane's gift

If the Ethiopian government is serious about the deficit and hard carrency balance it is very easy to handle. Most vehicles in Ethiopia belong to the government officials. What about not allowing officials to use government cars on week ends. You see those fat cats driving their SUVs to Sodere fridays and going from bar to bar evenings. That could conservatively reduce fuel expenses by a third!

EVERY ETHIOPIANS WILL BE MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES IN FEW YEARS. THANK YOU TO WOYANE'S IMPRESSIVE ECONOMIC POLICY AS WELL AS POLITICS. WELCOME TO 2nd ZIMBABWE.

55% inflation , 17% currency Devaluation = 14% GDP growth

i am NOT AN ECONOMIST BUT IT JUST DOES NOT ADD UP

Maaza ( visitor )

said
" ..a DC dishwasher or parking lot attendant may reduce the amount of dollars he sends home to family and friends"
Maaza - you might be right on everything you said ,considering my economics knowledge is limited to balancing my monthly grocery budget, however your assertion that people would most likely send less money because of the devaluation is flat wrong. As a proud dish washer myself, I believe this is the best time to invest in Ethiopia because I could get a lot for less. Recent history also thought me, devaluation of one's currency increases foreign investment. That is why the bush administration started talking the dollar down in 2008 which led to the dollars loosing it's value, whether that helped the American economy is not for me to answer.
Again, I am not an expert in this field, however I would like to remind everyone that 1 US dollar is traded for 84 japan yen! so when you say the Apocalypse is here because the Ethiopian Birr was devalued by 3 birr, you might also want to look at other countries and see what difference devaluation has make in their lives.

All I can say F*** weyanes!!! they are killing the country in any ways they can. ediats!!!!!!!!

-dear ethiopians do you belive ethiopia is the second poorest country after niger it is joke for me becouse there so many coountry in south america ,africa ,and in asia and there are so many country in the world how can we belive them like afganistan,bolvia ,somalia,eritrea,etc.. it is for eg do you belive them there is some thing at the back ?
-thank you

-dear ethiopians do you belive ethiopia is the second poorest country after niger it is joke for me becouse there so many coountry in south america ,africa ,and in asia and there are so many country in the world how can we belive them like afganistan,bolvia ,somalia,eritrea,etc.. it is for eg do you belive them there is some thing at the back ?
-you know they donot like our growth specialy most of western countries they do not like our hisotry
-dont discarage ethiopians
-thank you

IT's a good sign to the coming generation but when we come down to Ethiopian markets and dealers, all the shops they doubled up the price even if its Ethiopian product and once the price went up never goes down so this will affect the nation who earns less than $1 a day.

Gud fela zendiro ... Ethiopia is on SALE now.

Really this is the web site I visit most frequently. The only thing I hate to read is an injury to religion in this web site committed by lunatic and fanatics like Assta who invite genocide in Ethiopia.
Assta you did not comprehend my English with the last comment. You're right I misspelled and forget words, etc. I never edit it or preprepared or copy from a book like you did. I am sure you understand the content if not allow me to explain further if you have difficency in getting the point. I swearr I nver edit my comments. By the way where did you learn your English. In Egypt paid by moslem taxes to study hate religion and English by minority Egyptain Orthodox followeres there.
Let me dot some points and place teach me your religion if I distorted, twisted or manuplated like you do to other religion.
Until 1950's you guys used to sing in Arabic in the church becuase you don't have one. Again your king Haile invented for you a pilgrimage (copied from Mecca) by planting a church on top of mosque and called it 'Kulubie'. Do you know poor orthodx Ethiopians bankrupt their whatever they possess and donate it to the chucrch and later collected by the clergy. On TV they used to say we callected millions of dollars. Those people forgot their god or jesus and turn their face toward 'Kului' for cure and others. What a backward dogma society. Your religion phased out and replaced with cultural one. Go to South Africa and you will learn pure christianity.
How do you take it when you rip off molems tax money and learn hate and English in Egypt? Please nazret do not omitt my comment and if I offend somebody forgive. This is only to Assta who is so vulgar and cruel. I don't think he is an Ethiopian. So much haterate.

Ammann,..

Great point.
I guess when they rank the poorest countries in the world. They might have neglected places like somalia,eritrea,afganistan,etc..as places below the poverty line, which don't even make it to be called a country. In other word they don't meet the criteria to be a counntry.

To all clueless posters about the economy, IMF is right on this devaluation action by the Ethiopian Government. I will give credit the Meles rule for his action to devalue Birr.

Advantages devaluing currency for a country:
1. Increase Ethiopia good demand abroad and our export increases.
2. Ethiopia trade balance will be favorable against imports.
3. Import all luxurious goods will decrease sharply.
4. Increase hard currency reserve.
5. Less payment port fees from importing goods.
6. Spore economic growth in the country.
7. Increase employment growth.
8. Increase revenue collection by the federal government from employments and economic growth.
9. Attract foreign investors to set up larger scale manufacturing sectors for export goods.
10. Discouraging local black market hard currency buyers.
11. Attract more tourists to the country.
12. Bad for local consumers due to higher inflation but increase of economic growth and employment opportunities will trade off.


If devaluation was bad for the country why China is keeping its currency value weak all the time???

The US congresses and Labor Unions pushing president Obama to pressure China to strength its currency value in order American goods be attractive by China importers and American factories increase their production capacity and hire more laid unemployed Americans at home and jump start American depressed economy. America has unfavorable trade balance with China every year and wants to reduce the gap by decreasing it import goods from China and increase exporting goods to China.

GUYS 4everything do't blame the government the government is doing right thing now. u have to apperciate the good thing. anyway i want to know who Addis zemen is. always when i read his message i feel happy. please Addis zemen how i could i get u. on face book i tried to get u but i can't.do smthing.

Mike [Visitor],

you should know by now that Economics is the only descipline in which two guys win/share a noble prize for saying exactly the opposite. One says devaluation is contractionary i.e. it leads to decline in economic activity and the other (as you did ) argues that it bolsters export and overall economic performance. Both guys present evidence based on empirical observations for different countries. Both are right!

What I said above about the DC dishwasher was concerning remittance and not about investments by Wall Street gurus (like you). This was how I thought about it: our DC dishwasher sends 100 dollars (1300 Birr) every month to support his aging parents or supplement the income of his poorly paid brother who works for the city adminstration. Assuming that this devaluation does not entail substantial increase in the prices of goods in Addis, the dishwasher will be content with the 1300 birr he sends every month. But now with the new exchange rate which stands at around 17birr/dollar, the DC guy needs only 76 dollars to mainatin the monthly 1300 birr and will slip the extra 24 dollars to his wallet.) Given the mind boggling joblessness and insecurity hovering over the US America, this is not a small money (which is perhaps large enough to pay his monthly internet bill). Now think of the million Ethiopians working and living in the US and do the mathematics for your self.

addis zemen [Visitor]

ahun gin esedbihalehu. dingay ras Woyane neger neh. which part of my statements above are copy pasted? May be you are too chicken-head to understand even rudimenary comments like I made above. if economics is not your strong suit, why not pack up your rags and leave from this particular theme? Qil ras kkkkkk

Ethiopianwinet,

An idiot, you better shut up your big mouth. If you want to attack Assta, you must attack him. He is more than able to squash you. Take out the rest of Ethiopians from your garbage bickering.

I do not wana hear any insult that either insult the whole Orthodox or Muslim in Ethiopia.

If you have good points, then say it in short sentences. We are not able to read your never ending statemnets. You do not even know how to wrie one complete sentence.

Attack Assta, leave alone the rest of Ethiopians. Okay?

egzabhar fetun malse yarglan, malase edmahan yasatrw lala manybalale

Halafi Mengedi,

If you could right something that we can chew so that we can understand why the devaluations will Ethiopia,it would have been good.

I guess Halafi you have no clue about this thing. You are clapping your hand just for nothng.

Your argument does not convince anyone in a rational way. You are just saying it will do this and that without having the knowledge of Economics.

You mentined America is doing this and that. You cannot compare the poorest nation on earth with the richest nation on the earth. It does not make sense at all. Semay na midre comparison.


Let me tell you Halafi:

When you devalue the money, you are reducing the buying power of the money. And this is happening only in Ethiopia. If you were buying one machines that cost 100 Ethiopian birr yesterday, today you need 1000 birr to buy it. Where are you going to get that money? you will not get it, you just give up the business of importing if you are an Ethiopian.

But for the foreign investors, 1 dollar was 10 birr yesterday, but today it is 100 birr, Under such currency, for the investors, it is easy to invest in Ethiopia and it also cheap to buy raw materials in Ethiopia. It is also cheap to employ cheap labor.

What reseerve Halafi? can you explain to me how the hard currency reserve of Ethiopia will increase by devaluing the money? If there was a reasonable increase in import duty, yes , the government could get more hard currency, but now by devaluing the money. there is now way either the government or the people can get benefit.

I guess the governments plan is to attract more investors then to increase to get a higher cash flow in return to the influx of investors. That is the only way the government can probably make money. But that will be at the expense of suffering Ethiopians. If the people are going to suffer, that is not going to benefit. Think also Halafi, investors never come to build anything, their aim is to make profit.

Besides, Halafi, you have no clue about WB, IMF,... we know them. WB, IMF,... is not a development or a charity institutions. They a business financial institutions. They do not care whether Ethiopia is going to gain or develop. Their interest is only business.

Halafi you are completely lost here.

The other thing Ethiopia is now becoming like Zimbabwe, you may not know, but we know how Zimbabwians have been suffering because of their money like paper. When your currency becomes paper. Otherwise, Americans, Canadians, Europeans would have dipped their money by devaluation.

No matter what the circumstances are, all those rich counries are bettling to stabilize or keept their currency at constant dollar. There is no logic or economic theory that supports devaluations boosts development? It did not happen anywhere.

The other thing, the devaluation will stop at this , it will go down more,.... it will disable the citizen.

If you have an economic theory that supports this devaluation theory, then with cutting and pasting, tell us why and how? then we will take you seriously. Otherwise, do not tell us America did this and that? Ethiopia is not America?

If Ethiopia had alot of high tech products or things to export, we could say Ethiopia could benefit by devalueling its currency, and its products can be sold in large quantity and get high turn over. Ethiopia has nothing to sell which you can compare. China can benefit probably by devaluing because it has alot of products which can be dumped in mass and get high turn over of mass production. But Ethiopia is none of them. Ethiopia cannot be compared to any of those countties. The only thing Ethiopia can sell is Coffee, Sesame, ... and even those products are limited. If we had mass production of coffee, sesame, ... and it they were in high demand all over the wrold, we could say Ethiopia could get high hard currency turn over by marketing in mass.

The issue of WB, IMF,... is completely different. WB, IMF,... financial market institutions, they do not care about Ethiopia. All they care is about thier business. If you are in the thought of that WB, IMF,...are development insitutions, then you have no cluse about the whole world.

We are telling from experiences Halafi.

27.6 million dollare stolen from Ethiopian national bank by three Nigerians, and two Japanese, and one Gnanian.
The country is rotten and invaded by immoral and corrupt citizens of other natins.


At some stage, Ethiopian officils took metal bar for instead of gold. NOw money is taken from the bank.

Shameful, you have exposed the country to immorality and to international robberss including Arabs. Leave alone to generate money by devaluing money, you do not even know how to protect that money you have.

Shmae on you, you only know killing your own citizen and chasing your own citizen and selling the country.

Shame on you leboch. leba leba yametal

I think the reason why woyane did this devaluation is to encourage people to send money to their relatives over the coming holidays...as it likely lacked sufficient foreign currency in its store! otherwise unless import decreseas, based on a good ground, and import decreases, devaluation has no positive impact for a developing country, let alone in one of the poorest on the planet.

Gezaee H. – (the intellectual wana be!)

Is there any subject that you feel you shouldn’t comment on perhaps maybe you don’t know what the F… you are talking about?

You wrote:

“If I was the leader, if want to discourage import, I would have increased the import duty by 50% or more or increase the value of the money instead of devalueing the money just sell everything in the country for everyone who can show me any amount of dollar”

One does not have to be an economist to see how ridicules you sound with what you are proposing. If as you suggested you increased import duty by 50% or more and what if all the countries that are impacted by this tariff increase happened to be importers of Ethiopian Coffee, a commodity that earns most of the foreign currency for Ethiopia and what if they decide to respond in kind and increase their duty on Ethiopian coffee by 50%? Do you see where this is going
Mr. intellectual wana be? Please stay in your lane and leave the discussion to those who really understand the subject matter so that we all can learn something.

If you still insist on writing on a subject that you have no clue on, is possible to limit your writing to a few lines instead of a “War and Peace” size writing?

Gezaee H,

Your economic teacher would have given your D- for your economics 101 class. Go to library and look what is devaluation mean and how affects devalue currency to any country and what are the advantages and disadvantages and the book will tell you all. This is not about Meles opposition or supporting, it is plain economics. Find an economics book to refute the list I posted and let us know your new economic theory to introduce to the world you may get Noble prize for economics this your with that one million dollars.

Mike,

You are right on about analyzing economics 101 and you got A- grade.

Maaza,

You got F grade and you need to retake the economics 101 class at the chosen accredited school.

Albert,

He tried to get you too, without success.
The problem is you mis-spelled your own last name. Correct that and he will take you to the altar.

Mazaa,

Because a low level person insulted you , you do not have to pull down yourself to his level.

Halafi,
You tried to put the best face on the ugly situation!

Devaluation doesn't bode well for any country!

(I also noticed you use Meles' logic. He has HIS OWN "facts" and "truths". I hope he doesn't believe his own lies. And neither do you.)

Maaza,.anchi temzmaza,

"Ahun gin esedbhalhu" ayi mognit melsun setechyew enayalena.

First you have to know that economics doesn't have formula. You can't say this has to be this or that. World economy keeps flactuating,and always changes have to be made according to any cicumestances exist. That is why many countries have to be forced to adjust their currency rate to make a fair and square compitation.
The problem with you is, you are a know it all person and dismiss anything comes across your idea. The audicity you are showing as being an intelectual,only shows your arogance and infiriority complex. I don't like to reason out with you people. You have this made up mind set of negativity about our govt. Look how many commentators above are celebrating just for hearing currency divaluetion. All of them ready to trash mouthing our govt.
I,as an indidual am always proud and confident of this govt.and will stay that way,and support them when ever they make such dicissions. They have brought our country this far through adversity and against all odds,and will continue to take us to the next level.
It is not a cake walk leading such a poor country like Ethiopia. There are up and downs here and there. Whether you agree or not, they are doing their best,and nobody else would have done better,not even half of their achievment.

Lesidibish mastenqeqia endihonish zefen merchelishalehu,
"Nazretoch yedemessessubignin bitayew,
Cherqishin tilesh neber yemitabjiw,"

Gezaae,
You are such a moron I know of. If your Econ 101 idea is better than the experts of Weyane Economics 301, take it to Economics smegazin.

You even gave us a tigrigna saying??? For what?
you are a chamelon fanatic christian. Last time you even suggested nazret contact CIA and FBI about my comments. You hidden agenda and other hate words should be enough for me to do the same to you, ante tera weregana. You better guard your filthy mouth.

Endante aynetu new agere sew yefeje. Use Amharic saying next time around so we can comprehend you if at all you have anything to be comprehended of . I doubt it though.

Maaza

Thanks for calling me a wall street guru! I like to think of it as a prophesy. I hope you were not high on Kchat when you said that because that would certainly "devalue" your statement.

About the Dc dishwasher not sending all 100 because of the Birr's devaluation, only a "konkuana"-greedy person like you would do such a thing. I would certainly send all the hundred dollars regardless of the exchange rate but again I am kind. {brushing my shoulder}

Gezaee H,

A thousand thanks for your comment on world economics. It carries many facts and it is educational.

mesi
please leave Eritrea alone ok? do not worry about Eritrea worry about your country.Eritrea is struggling for ite better life.
God bless this hardworking country.

Devaluating Birr at the current situation has more disadvantages than merits. It can't discourage import as there is no alternative domestic supply of the commodities imported. As far as there is no domestic supply the import will continue and the people will pay for it. The price increase is obvious. The importers have lost there capital by 17% and to compensate for that they will transfer thir lost to the poeple. The importers have been the potential future investors to produce the commodities at home but the devaluation has already decreased their capital and now only foreign investers have the advatage to invest in Ethiopia. Devaluation by no means ecourage export while you have nothing to export yet. The best stratagy should have been to protect those items locally produced through other mechanisms and to encourage importers to start investing on small industries to produce imported commodities at home. Then when we have more commodities produced locally devaluation may help to protect local industiries from imported commodites competition. When you have more commodities to export the IMF will not dare you to devaluate your currancu rather they will push you to appreciate it like China. China wants to devaluate its currancy but they are being pushed to have stronger currancy. The simple maths of IMF is to devaluate currancy if you are import intensive and to appreciate if you are export intensive while the interest of the nation concerned is otherwise.

Above all a 17% devaluation at once is not healthy. If you have 1.4 million birr in cash you lost 30000birr at once. This can't be healthy and no one likes this to happen to him. Curruncy change shall be introduced step by step. After a long tome stand of the chinese appreciate their currancy only br 3% while the expectation was 20%. Obama is praying for the Chinese currancy to appreciate by 20% in five years. A 17% curracy chane at one from the poorest nation is a very nice "enkutatash" gift for IMF and the likes.

Shame on you Meles

Please Halafi,

Do not cut and paste, economics is much more than that. The world is run the simple way you are thinking. The world economic system very very complex, it is not as simple as that.

Hey everybody,why can't we try to bring some helping tips to fight our inflation instead of just bashing our govt,and crying foul night and day.
Solomon[visitor] above threw some sugestion which he thinks could be helpful if the govt applys it. Yes that is what I am talking about.
Our people should cut their conumption of none essential and luxuiries items,like bunna,chat suger,etc. Why do we need to drink coffee 3 times a day? It doesn't have any nutrational value. Why do we chew a whole zurba chat in a group everyday?couldn't it be enough ones in a week?that way we will spend our time being productive and save some of our consumption available to the big demand of export. How about cutting down the suger intake? that is unhealthy.
Believe me if we try nothing is impossible.
Last week on NPR radio,one of africas corrospondant named Ophebia,had this great story about a trip she took on congo river on a towed barge,African style "cruise ship" it took her almost one month,from one end to get to the capital Kinshasa. Please go to NPR.com,morning idition,steve inneskip's programe. You will be amazed how people manage to survive. How about one of their dellicacy "a smoked monkey stew"?
I know as Ethiopians that will give us the chills,but let's ask ourselves,do we realy eat anything eatable and available in our country. We are so picky and prefer to starve.

Agazee hoops Gezaee H. No wonder you shut you big fat ass when assta invited genocide. You enjoy his hate English. Here I addressed the truth and it was hard for you to swallow it. You are one of them who committed the past bad history. He was all over the web site spreading haterate, insult and even violence. I've never a comment a sentnce before. Mr expert biased agazaee go ahead and defend Assta the hate monger before he squash. withate

Gezaee H before you jump in and protect your friend hate monger, try to understand my points. Where were you when the hater invite violence, genocide, insult other religion becuase of few criminals. You never utter a word. I've never insult your religion but explained how the feudal caused pain and suffering for other religion followeres. Those feudal injected culture into religion and thought hate and produced hate mongers like Assta. This kind of hate took place during Hitler area and I was caught by surprise to learn from so called Ethiopian Assta and defended by Gezaee. I hope his incitement and hate words won't quinch you thirst mr biased agazaee H.
Thank you nazret for being fair but stop Assta from spreading violence in my country.

May Allah help us. yemeseketet new. 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17......what is next!

Correction: I think the reason why woyane did this devaluation is to encourage people to send money to their relatives over the coming holidays...as it likely lacked sufficient foreign currency in its store! otherwise unless import decreases, based on a good ground, and export increases, devaluation has no positive impact for a developing country, let alone for one of the poorest of the poor on the planet.

Gezaee H, I did not understand your English. in a lot of your sentences. You said this and that redundently. Plse put it in proper English before you insult others. Is leba leba English or Sewahili. Plse place it in quote so we don't mistaken to different vacuoblary. I was checking my dictionary becuase of your fantasic English writing. Grow man.
I see synonimity b/n you and Assta the way you attack others viciously. let me stop here before it become vicious cycle. Adios 'wendem.'

Devaluting a currecy can affect, among other things,the import, export and inflation of agiven country.
In case of Ethiopia; big part of the import are issintial goods like feul, fertilizer, indusrial and constraction row matreals.So regadeless of the price Ethiopia has to import these goods to achive its development goals. Devaluting the birr makes iporting of these goods expensiv which in turn makes farming, prudacion, transportation and constraction cots higher.So I dont see the benift of devalutig birr in case.
On the ather hand, Ethiopian exsport is not doing well becouse it lukes quality, prodactivity and diversity.Improvement in these area make our export compitative in the international market.With the above factors remain the same; devaluting birr reduce the amount dollar Ehiopia gets from export.The only benifit goose to foreigners and Ethiopian living in the west.For the 80% of the population who depedes on farming devaluting of birr brigs only inflation.
Gad bles Ethiopia.

ay ethiopia!

I wonder how much Birr EFFORT exchanged or transferred to foreign banks before they devalued the birr.

Ethiopiawenet (visitor),

Your problem is not only in spelling words: your big problem is in constructing readable sentences where other people can easily understand, comprehend, and enjoy what they are reading.

You wrote: “I swear I never edit my comments.” No one asked you to swear either by the moon or by the sun, or even by your false prophet Muhammad in order to make us believe you don’t bother to edit your comments. You just want the readers to figure out what you are saying in your comments. Yes, let us assume you don’t revise your comments because you believe you are an expert in the English language, and what you comment is always right. How simpleton you are! A wise person edits his writings three or four times, and he even gives his writings to another person to read them and edit them before he posts them. However, a confused person like you, a blunderer, and a mountebank, evinces his disorderly life in his disorganized writings.

An unlettered person writes: “Let me dot some points and place (sic) teach me your religion if I distorted, twisted or manuplated (sic) like you do to others religion.” He goes on to express his ignorance: “Until 1950’s you guys used to sing in Arabic in the church becuase (sic) you don’t have one.” I could not pick up any sentence that makes any sense from all your sentences. For example, “…because you don’t have one.” You don’t have one what? What kind of head do you have man?

Mr. Gezaee H. (visitor) is absolutely right that you are more than idiot; you are uninformed, unqualified, shallow, insensitive, and a dimwit. Since you have no clue about sentence construction, don’t make one until you are sure you are making a meaningful sentence. As I told you before, I have no idea what you are saying, and what your questions are; therefore, tell your ideas to someone who knows English, and let that someone write your ideas; then you can post them. And I shall be happy to answer your questions.

GEZAEE,
I AM VERY ANNOYED AT YOUR IGNORANCE Y ATTACKING ETHIOPIAWINET. HE ALREADY ASKED THOSE GOOD CHRISTIANS TO FORGIVE HIM. HE ALSO SAID HE IS ATTACKING ONLY ASSTA.
SO DO YOU NEED GLASSES? CORRUPT AS YOU ARE, YOU NEED EXCUSES TO ATTACK ALL INNOCENT ETHIOPIAN MUSLIMS.
YOU ARE A CHAMELON CHRISTIAN.

To begin with we cannot be this dumb and free. The IMF and the World Bank are not there to save the third world... just like any profit-driven institution, their bottom line, which is making profit comes at a severe cost to the so-called third world countries and some first world and second world nation members. To the average person, the literal meaning is that, once you become a member to the IMF, you get two choices: choice 1. Follow the SAP and get screwed quickly or 2. Play a bit hard to get and get screwed later. One thing is for sure, you get screwed, but you get to choose when....if need be they can change your administration's policies to their likings. If not a change will be forced. Why? Because they know most third world nations have no clue what they put themselves into. For those who can read and write, please read article 9 of the IMF's constitution so that you would have a clue that all the employees of IMF are immune from the any taxations, auditing, investigations, monitoring and controls of any sovereign state, including Ethiopia. The IMF gets stronger and bigger mostly thanks to the third world countries who are taking the directions from their play books. At the present, IMF has the third largest gold deposit in the world. The profit of the IMF only gets bigger courtesy of moronic, shallow, tribalist, and deeply ignorant regimes in most parts of the third-world and their citizenry. The most important tool that IMF has at it's disposal is the myth of being an international organization under the banner of which the worst venom of devaluation gets spread. Once you start devaluing the currency, then welcome to the world of no recovery, at least if you subscribe to the policies of IMF. Our worst enemies remain to be the deep tribalism and ignorance. If all else falls, let's do the following 5 things. 1. Let's get to understand the intricacies before we sign accords, treaties, and membership agreements. 2. Let's educate our people 3. Plant more trees, at least 2 trees per every living person. 4. No Ethiopian land, major industries, and corporations to be sold to non-Ethiopians. No lease for a non-Ethiopian entity should be signed for a duration of 20 years. 5. Back to fixed exchange rate, if need be, withdraw membership from the Organizations that are forcing their wills. Stop the devaluation game. Work hard and smart...those are our only two options.... 5.

To begin with we cannot be this dumb and free. The IMF and the World Bank are not there to save the third world... just like any profit-driven institution, their bottom line, which is making profit comes at a severe cost to the so-called third world countries and some first world and second world nation members. To the average person, the literal meaning is that, once you become a member to the IMF, you get two choices: choice 1. Follow the SAP and get screwed quickly or 2. Play a bit hard to get and get screwed later. One thing is for sure, you get screwed, but you get to choose when....if need be they can change your administration's policies to their likings. If not a change will be forced. Why? Because they know most third world nations have no clue what they put themselves into. For those who can read and write, please read article 9 of the IMF's constitution so that you would have a clue that all the employees of IMF are immune from the any taxations, auditing, investigations, monitoring and controls of any sovereign state, including Ethiopia. The IMF gets stronger and bigger mostly thanks to the third world countries who are taking the directions from their play books. At the present, IMF has the third largest gold deposit in the world. The profit of the IMF only gets bigger courtesy of moronic, shallow, tribalist, and deeply ignorant regimes in most parts of the third-world and their citizenry. The most important tool that IMF has at it's disposal is the myth of being an international organization under the banner of which the worst venom of devaluation gets spread. Once you start devaluing the currency, then welcome to the world of no recovery, at least if you subscribe to the policies of IMF. Our worst enemies remain to be the deep tribalism and ignorance. If all else falls, let's do the following 5 things. 1. Let's get to understand the intricacies before we sign accords, treaties, and membership agreements. 2. Let's educate our people 3. Plant more trees, at least 2 trees per every living person. 4. No Ethiopian land, major industries, and corporations to be sold to non-Ethiopians. No lease for a non-Ethiopian entity should be signed for a duration of 20 years. 5. Back to fixed exchange rate, if need be, withdraw membership from the Organizations that are forcing their wills. Stop the devaluation game. Work hard and smart...those are our only two options.... 5.

Maaza

I disagree, it is almost certain devaluation causes inflation as a result household comodities substantialy will increase as well.

As cost of goods rise, cost of living rises as well, simple logic without assuming. So, that the dishwasher you mentioned must Send more money to keep up with the cost of his/her family back home.

For example if the government must purchase such basic needs like fuel gas/petroleum or grain/foods from foreign country then imagine how this can affect at micro level.

Gezaee H. [Visitor]

I guess u did not get me...

I aint tired i am just amazed by how much you like to hear yourself.
I hope you get this one

Way to go weyane! now you devaluate the respected Ethiopian Birr even lower than Nakefa! What is next. I almost expected everything that you have done in the past, but never thought you would do such devaluation to our currency.Is there an economist who can explain this to me. who in the wright mind would do such a mess to his own country.You guys are http://nazret.com/blog/rsc/smilies/icon_crazy.gifhttp://nazret.com/blog/rsc/smilies/icon_crazy.gif

Everything and anything that is available above and below the lands in Ethiopia is owned,controlled,and run by the wealtheaset Zinawians.From among millions of Ethiopians,the homeless girls,the homeless boys,the homeless preagnant women are the hrdest hit.Zinawians spend their ill-gotten wealth in luxury.Afterall,whose country Zinawians are looting anyway?

Jack [Visitor]

"...So, that the dishwasher you mentioned must Send more money to keep up with the cost of his/her family back home."

firstly i did not say anywhere that devaluation does not lead to inflation. what i said was 'assuming devaluation does not lead to immediate inflation,' which, if you understand English, means it leads to inflation, the only uncertain thing being the timing.

Moreover there is no guarantee that devaluing a currency or a basket of currencies at a time will always lead to inflation. for instance during the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (the exchange rate system that preceded the introduction of the euro), there was an over all devaluation of 45% while its measured effect on inflation was only around 3%. If one assumed that your sources are right, how come a 45% devaluation led to an insignificant increase in prices which teetered around 3%?


As I said in my earlier comments on this same topic, there are several moving parts involved and you cannot say that devaluation will always lead to inflatation. as an economist, I tell you epricisim is the rule than the exception in economic analysis. it is not a simple linear relationship. in some places and times the relationship could be strong, in others weak, and still in others immaterial.

I had tried my best to ignore you as most of what you wrote above was un-intellectual, shallow and senseless. But if you mention my name, I think I must show you not only how wrong you are but also how the Civil Service College you attended did not help you.

Here is what you said and my counter refutation:

Advantages devaluing currency for a country:

1. Increase Ethiopia good demand abroad and our export increases---wrong because Ethiopia’s export is still staggering and unable to stand on its feet. If you noted my comments above between 1991 and 2010 birr has been devalued by more than 800% while the export earnings remained stagnant

2. Ethiopia trade balance will be favorable against imports---dead wrong I mentioned above that its trade deficit grow from one to 7 billion dollars and the successive devaluations did not help

3. Import all luxurious goods will decrease sharply---wrong only when a nation embarks on import substitution industries that the import of luxuries or necessities would decline. If you cannot produce this stuff at home, import will be un-avoidable

4. Increase hard currency reserve---laughable and stupid. Ethiopia’s currency reserve has always been less than two months of our import bill and the rest has been covered by aid and grant money. This shows how much you know the Ethiopian economy!

5. Less payment port fees from importing goods---wrong again. If you devalue your currency its purchasing power falls which means you have to pay more in terms of local currency be it for port services or other goods and services imported. You do not even understand that you are making self-contradictory statements

6. Spore economic growth in the country---how shallow! The source of growth in any nation is technological innovation, invention, investment and entrepreneurial creativity as well as a rise in the productivity of its human capital. For every devaluation there is counter-devaluation, thus neutralizing the advantage obtained through currency manipulation. A country grows sustainably by investing in education, research and development and increasing its saving.

7. Increase employment growth---can you please give us some data on employment increase in Ethiopia which links it to the successive devaluations made over the past twenty years? BTW, do you know that our unemployment plus underemployment is more than 50%?

8. Increase revenue collection by the federal government from employments and economic growth---childish. If currency devaluation were the magic wond to solve our problems of unemployment, growth, deficits etc, how come, as I mentioned in No.s 1,2,3 above, these problems got worse over time?

9. Attract foreign investors to set up larger scale manufacturing sectors for export goods---well I hope you know that our currency is twice as weaker as China’s. Labour (blue collar) in our country is five times cheaper than China’s. Ethiopia, not china, is known for grand devaluation scam over the past twenty years. With all these ‘advantages’ in our backyard, should not Ethiopia be attracting substantial FDI inflow? Can you please teach us how weak currencies are correlated with increased FDI inflow by citing currencies, countries and some time series data? By the way China, with much stronger currency than Ethiopia, is among the top 15 in terms of its stock of FDI while Ethiopia, with a much undervalued currency, teeters at 114 (see wikipedia for more info)


10. Discouraging local black market hard currency buyers---this is irrelevant. Like all other illegal or contraband activities, the currency black market can be contained through active legal supervision, monitoring and control. It is the work of security officials and law enforcement bodies. The black market activity will adjust to the recent exchange rate and will continue to operate. FYI, I always send money home through the black market traders and they are there after every devaluation decision, in fact have thrived by leaps and bounds in terms of their customer base and capital accumulation

So Halafi Mengedi, a little knowledge is dangerous. As Gezaee told you, you are totally clueless when it comes to debate on economic issues.

addis zemen [visitor]

"First you have to know that economics doesn't have formula"

hahahaha the beauty of ignorance is that you can say anything you want so long as you are clueless on the subject. Economics has hundreds if not thousands of formulas and many of the economic, financial and development indicators like HDI, HPI, nominal and real GDP, NEER, REER, BEER, inflation (CPI, PPI, WPI etc), are computed using different formulas and models. It is based on these formulas that raw data are transformed into some concrete, condensed and handy facts and figures which will be used by government officials and policymakers to guide public policy actions and decisions. In fact, it is these complex mathematical, statistical and econometric formulas and models that make the science of Ecomomics interesting and that qualifies it as a Nobel Prize winning descipline along side with Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace.

Gezaee H., Michelin Boy, is just a blabbering fool who just moves his gum continously with no logic behind it. The dude used to beat up by everyone in Ehtiopia by his own admission. If you skim through for a second his endless blabbering nonsense just for a second, it's easy why everyone in Ethiopia used to woop his butt.

ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር

Dear Assta,

I do guess either you are intoxicated or you are getting pyschotic.

Where did I insult you? What did I say about you? just reread what I said. Okay?

I told to Ethiopianwinet to attack you separately instead of attacking the whole 50 million orthodox believers. I said that if he want to attack Assta, I said, " Attack Assta only." Why do you want all the 50 million people to be insulted with you?

That is all what I said Brother Assta, nothing more or less. I did not insult you anywhere.

You insulted me all sort of insult for no reason. I could do the same. However, I do believe I am a better person than you. Only weak, and narrow people invest in bad words.

My name Gezaee H. It is my real name. I do not hide behind PC like you and spread hatred. I am only brave to say the truth. I do not like an unbalanced and biased monologue or dialogue of your type.

I will take your insult and derogation as a compliment. But I must tell that you are exposing yourself in this way how a low-level person you are.

About english, I try my best. I do not measure or standardize myself or anyone in terms of English. If I am not able to use it, it is not my langauge. I am not actually prould of speaking english.

It sounds you are one of those brainwashed Ethiopians who believe if you do not master English you are useless.

Thus please, stop comunicating with me in anyway. I do not need you. If you want to talk to me, use your real name. Then I can talk to you. Also you need to cool your brain if you want to talk to me. I do not like talking to people who have hot and boiling brain since such people have no time to study and weigh what they say.

People like you have no self-control. it has been said that human tongue is the most dangerous weapon that can destroy the world. The bible says that because of the evilness of human tongue, many people have perished. If people could take your seriously, you could set the whole Ethiopia on fire because you have a very long and very an untamed tongue.

Bye bye Assta, good luck with your hate mongering mission

Ethiopiawinet,

Please take me out from the Assta issue. I have noting to do with him. I do not know him. If you have an issue with him. You must talk or do whatever you want.

All I said to you, do not insult the 50 million orthodox believers because of Assta.

If I am bad, you shoul not be like me. If you are bad, I should not be like you. Okay? that is my message.

You guys, because you do not use your real names, you are not responsible for what you say. You do not even have the courage to use your real names. But you want to people to kill each other.

Ethiopianwinet, all Ethiopians are my brothers and sisters, trust me from my heart. I hate no human being. If there is biaed, prejudiced, ... outlook, I do condemn.

There is one thing which I strongly oppose is terrorism. And I exclude my Ethiopian muslims from that because there has never been an Ethiopian terrorist. We never heard an Ethiopian muslim fighting in Russia, or Somalia,...

So becareful Ethiopianwine. Do not make mistakes because of some people. What we says here really matters alot. People think it is like a joke. But when say something is not good, its hurts people.

Assta B. Gettu
You seem to act as though you are an expert in a lot fields including language and religion.
“false prophet” hey real nice. Boy you are so smart, I’m sure you mama has told you that. I don’t live in the dark as you do ‘my friend’. Weak up and smell the flowers, Islam is the real deal. I accepted it 6 month ago and I have seen the truth. It is Ramadan I’ll pray for you

Dear Halafi,

If you knew better than me, I would have expected a good essay from you to be posted here. However, what you posted earlier was cut and paste and telling us about comparison of America and Ethopia.

you could not write a single sentence of your own based on reasoning? Where is then your economics knowledge? Not knowing is not crime Halafi? You just have to stay away when you do not know instead of pretending as if you know by googling , cutting and pasting? That is called plargiasm.

Halafi, I have to tell you that you know nothing about economics that is the reason you could not say anything. You only know alot about Meles Zenawi and his wife,kkkkkkkkkk? but economics is not about Meles and Azeb.

You even told us WB, IMF,... are good, kkkk, only that expressions has exposed you how empty you are about economics.

I am not talking out of the blue Halafi, it is life skill experience working with GIF, WB, WWF, UNEP, WLS,MSF, AMRR,.. it is all a handon experiences. I am not writing like you because I have an internet acccess and just pretending as if I know.

Guys,

You are trying to reason with Michelin Boy, Gezaee. You are in for a very rude awakening! You guys need to know you are talking with a guy from a mental institution in Canada doing nothing the whole day but typing away, role playing in his imaginary LOONEY world. Michelin Boy pretends to be a General one day, a Leader of a country another day, a Nobel Laureate Economist the next day though he ‘s can’t give you the proper change for a buck. We are talking about a complete total Looney. Our Ethiopian Brother has probably visited Amanuel Hospital few times as a young boy in Addis.

ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር

Downward spiral,

Wow, I am amazes we do have people like you who really know how the world works. If ones read the IMF, WB,... constitutions , one gets shocked. IMF , WB, ... are evil. It is not only that, they use UNDP, UNICEF, ... all the other UN offices to spy and manipulate governments. UNDP is WB,IMF,... in disguise.

Well said Brother!

Those TPLF cadres who are tuned to sell everything to anyone who show them a dollars.

Read this so that you know what world Bank did to Nigeria.

I will post more about the evil WB, IMF

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Structural_Adjustment/GlobalResist_StrucAdjust.html


Ethiopians, it is time now to say to Meles Zenawi to quiet. He will go on and on doing more damage.

At least without him, we can be poor and own and get buried on our land. With Meles we will not have a burial place. he will sell everythng.

1. He land-locked our country, we kept quiet.

2. He betrayed our soldiers in a battle fiend and he took our country to Europe, we kept quiet.

3. He sold our land to Arabs, Indians,... for 90 years, we kept quiet.

4. He is devalueing our money to please WB, IMF,...

Let us inform our people, this man is practically.

Let me tell you a story. I met an Arab investor from Ethiopia. He bought land almost for nothing. But now he told me, there is more than the land? I asked why? He told me Ethiopian have alot of things we did not know they have he said.

Now is engaged in another business. He is exporting from Ethiopia spices of all kind. He said Ethiopians do not know. It is this ignorance that is keeping us so poor.


With the manue devauled totally, the citizen will watch helplessly when the country is taken by surprise by all foreigners who are in a gold rush to grab everything in The country.

As you can see, the regime has already lost control. When the banda regime sells everything to the private multinational corporation, the regime will be more bankrupt and lose control. And this is evident already in Ethiopia, there is too much corruption. Land is sold by brigeto foreigners.

If we do not do anything now, it will be too late later.

Devaluation of Birr no good for millions of poor Ethiopians.For the last two decades,Zinawians have been looting and murdering Ethiopians and have accumelated enromous wealth both inside and outside Ethiopia in billions of dollars;as a result, they identified themselves as one of the richest crimefamily in the world.

Today,everything and anything that is available both above and below the lands in Ethiopia is owned,controlled,and run by Zinawians

In Zinawians' mind there is no Ethiopia;but there is one and only one world with two economic system that they established as soon as they invaded Ethiopia;one ecnomic system for themselves another one for the rest.For the last twenty years it has been too risky for Ethiopians to live in Zinawians' world.

The hungry millions,the jobless millions,the imprisoned thousands,the murdered thousands,the homeless little girls and little boys all are victims of the notorious Zinawians.What secret enemies Ethiopaians have had for years!

In 2010 Zinawians did so dishonestly to Ethiopians and gained votes;if they think they are best suited to govern,shame on them;but if they really believ it and Ethiopians elected them,the shame is on us.

Zinawians are very,very rich and the wealthest,they compete with international marketers;but the hungry and the homeless little girls and little boy fight with mice,cats,dogs,and insects for survival,if indeed leftovers are available in the municipal garbage bins.That is what we are talking about.

Assta,

Apology, I did read you wrong. Please accept my apology. I thought you levelled the insult on me. I was quiet shocked, but I read and got it wrong. MY Sincere apology Assta.

"No body asked you to swear". That was a' hilarious statement.

Assta, this will be my last comment and please read it repeatedly. All I try to tell over and over was plse take a right path that make your hereafter life better than this short life. It's not enough to put it only on Jesus and then committ crime against other religion and humanity on this earth. It's simple if you mind your business and not to write a fake history based on legendry and to insult a peaceful/beautiful religion followers. It's your privilage to worshiop even a wood withou a cross in it.
By the way did you hear that the religion you insult and incite violence was embraced by your fellow clergy. This clergy is at the top and he who built over 200 churches in Ethiopia. Ask me and I'll give you his name. Are you going to call violence on him like fanatic christians and moslem do. He knows your religion well just like Americans black know. You appealed to black to turn to your religion. Try again and you will see their respond. I pitty you a lot for medling in unnecessory way.
Let me answer to your letigation regading my English. You edited the followings: "place" sorry I meant 'please'. Also manuplated hoops it should manuplate. You how simple to correct them. This exposed your behavior psych where you mind operate. Your prognosis quite dim. Again when Gragn Ahmed questioned why you worship a wood with cross in the box. Your answere was there is no cross in the wood box (tabot). And you insult him as usual. You did not answere the worship question because that is the soft spot of your religion. Tabot caused a lot of blood sheds in many cities of Ethiopia. Your followers used to say Tabot refused to cross where mosque erected. Do you remember the late king Haile sent trops to pass the tabot Anwar mosque in Addis in 1970's. I think the king knows in his inner heart you guy guys are following cultural religion and not real religion.
Again it's your priviledge to worship wood box, or Jesus mom, or for that matter angels. I don't have slightest right to insult or call genocide like you do. In fact I used to go to church with my christian friend when we try to study.
Plse nazret let this addressed to people like Assta and his lunatic friends who enjoy his garbage attack on other humanbeings. Only cowrds dare to do this. Nazret is a fair web site except in religion area. You should silent violent peoples from causing turbolence.

Hello to all of you who concerned about Ethiopia.
Please Please don¨t get me wrong
I am Pure Ethiopia
so if you are not agree with me just let me alon.
some of you blame Weyane,us,chine?
What about us
1.most of us Ethiopians import more our need.for personal interest,group interst & goverment& Country interest.
So what do we need to happen for Birr.
When INDRA Gandi(Indian)hate Britanias coliny what she was did the INDIAN ppl was stop using made in Britanias materials.
So why not US,instade of others.
some of you say this is Weyanes stratagy,b/s the ppl live Abrod to send Dollar,so what
If Thos who live Abrod send Dollars
the Govt.get currency easly & it!s help to control market.
also the family recived this Dollar stop going Black market is better,b/s if the govt.has shortage of forigen curency we can¨t control the inflation & as some ppl wish its goon be Nakfa.

SO my idea is as Ethiopian what we do to control our Birr befor became as you say nakfa or other,
Please thalk to me for SOLUTION.
Thankyou.
GOD BLESS US ALL:

Solutions:


1. Do not devalue the money

2. Allow the country to use its own ports and save more than 1 billion dollars a year

3. Reconcile with Eritrean, share power and forget the border. let the soldiers who have been watching each other to kill kiss each other and end the war, then you will save 1 million dollar a day

4. Share power and establish a transparent system and root out corruptions, retire the unproductive cadres ? how much do u spend on all those unproductive cadres?

6. IF you ask forgiveness to the Ethiopian people and promise to transfer power to a civilians peacefully, then we can mobilize Ethiopian inside and outside. other wise, another 20 years will fly away insulting each other and after 20 years from now we may still find our selfs begging food, and investors to come to our country. No investors will help our country, they will exploit our land, pollute our soils, waters and l and they will go go away.

It is 100% better to have a motivated citizen than to have multitrillion loan or many hundred 1000 investors. They investors will exploit the people and local resources and leave us empty. They will not even save thier money in our country. We have seen and life is the best school than school.

I know you will not do, this is just my dream.

What excess export product does Ethiopia has?

What you are telling us what exactly WB, IMF,... says to thier subjects. This has been done all over the world in the past two decades. None of the countries which have done this SAP prescription has gained anything.

I am not talking about politicians, I am saying this has been done by many countries like Nigeria, Bolivia, Cambodia, Columbia, Argentina, Vietenam,... none of these countries have been benefitted. The Ethiopian government is repeating mistakes done by other countries. We were supposed to learn from the mistakes of other countries.

The leaders in Ethiopia are not well-informed. Not knowing is not a crime. I do not think they do have engough time to know everything. We are talking from experiences.

WB, IMF,... SAP blue print developmnet path has completely failed because it is desinged to for them , not for poor people.

What the TPLF cadres are telling us now is what is WB, IMF,... has been preachng for the past 2 decades. May be this is new for leaders.


It is only China can benefit from devaluation because it has a huge cheap mass productoin of all kinds of products. Ethiopia has nothing to sell. The coffee, sesame,... it has does not require devaluation because it is very limited commodity. Yes if Ethiopia had products which are roting , for instance if Ethiopia has exreme excess coffeee, sesame,... production, we could say, by devalueing the currency we could sell all the excess products. Now we have nothing that requires devaluation.

The devaluation in Ethiopia has noting to do with Ethiopia, it is a prescription given to Meles by WB,IMF,.. these prescription has been forced to many countries which have debt fo WB,IMF. It is a collateral with the loan Meles has taken. Meles has singed an agreement to do that when he took some of the packages of WB,IMF,... loan.

I cannot believe this devaluation has emanated from the minds of the leaders. It is imposed on them due to the money they have taken or have agreed to take more loan.

This devaluation also makes it so hard for Ethiopia to pay its debt because the time value of the WB,IMF,.. money will increase.

If Ethiopians can hear me, this requires a national disobedience before it is too late. If WB,IMF,... control our country in this suble way, our people become outlandish in thier own land.

This is actually happening already. The Arabs have actually expanded their business now in Ethiopia. They are take away or exporting cereals, spices,... to their country.

I met one Arab, he told me he invested 1 billion dollar and he says his initial plan was to do farming but now he says there is more than that. He says, there is alot of spice in Ethiopia which be a lucrative businss and he said Ethiopians do not know business. Now with Arabs taking our local products, our people will suffe more. Poverty up on poverty.

Investors are also marrying Ethiopian women and so that they can be accepted as Ethiopians.

If my citizens can hear me, let us stop this crazy govenrment. I do not think the are doing this with knowledge. They are doing out of ignorance.

Meles Zenawi tried all alone for 20 years, he did not achieve much, but now it is time for him to do selling everything experiment.

Oh, guys, the nation has to be consulted. One man can ride us like this. This is not good. He could have achieved alot if he mobilized the people of Ethiopia from the beginning.

He himself made the enemy of the people by land-locking the 86 million people by force? he is paying 1 billion dollar or more every year?

Instead of devalueing the money, committing another mistake, why he does not allow the country to use its ports and save the more than 1 billion dollar money he is spending to use ports?

Even without devalueing Ethiopia earns 1 billion dollars from exports. He is depositing directly into Djibouti's account. How much hard currency is he going to generate by devaluing the money?


I swear we need another leader. They are just wasting time of the 86 milion people.


I do not know how we should tell them. They do not listen to their citizen. If we were all in peace, if the government could listen to citizens and do what the citizens want. If we as a nation were working togeter. we could have raised the money the regime needed. But the main problem is this regime sees Ethiopians as enemy and had intention to accept to do what the people wanted to be done.

Instead of working with the people, the govenment is taking collateral loans which forces it to sell or privatize everything to multinational coroporations.

We need to stop this madness befor it is too late. If multinational companies are already settled in Ethiopia, we our people will lose control of everything. This has happened every where in the rest of the world.

This has been exposed by Univesity of New Brunswick.

Time to wake up and say no to WB, IMF, and Meles thier placard carrier.

The other thing which is worth mentioning here.

WB,IMF, 2000 multinational co-orprations have refused to accept the UN Global Compact. The UN global compact is established to hold WB,IMF,other multinational corporation responsible so that they do not abuse citizens of nations where they invest. All them have refuseed yet to accept the Global compact of UN. The global compact protects citizens of nations wheere multinational coroporations invest. Since they cannot make profit without exploiation, they have refused to accept the UNG global compact.

link:

http://www.unglobalcompact.org/

The global compact enforces ILO labour laws and environmental laws to protect nations from those irresponsible multinational corporations and including IMF, WB...

They do not exploit citizens of nations, but they pollute the land, water, practically destroy the environment and also practice child labour. UN Global compact have been drafted many countries like Argentiana, Colubia, Bolivia. Nigeria,... have been affected after they adopted WB, IMF SAP by force. UN adopted the UN Global Compact in response to the damage caused by them. WB,IMF,... were also asked to reform thier consitutions because thier constituions do not respect human right. They can borrow money even to despotic leaders. WB,IMF,... is business as usuall, they do not care about human right or environment. That is the reason they refuse any of their articles written 50 years ago. This means WB,IMF,...did not change after colonialism. They might have changed thier approach, but their constitution remains unchanged which means neocolonialism.

Where is then the revolutionary developmental state? if you hand in our poblic institutions. then you will be robbd the power you have, not by the Ethiopian people. you will hand over power instead of to the Ethiopian people to WB,IMF,.. they will tell you what to do. They will actually tell you stay out of the market. They will tell you that the market is a self-regulationg system and govenment must stay out of the private sphere. you will not have any say on what goes on. It is those who have the money who will rule. That is Neoliberal free marekt democracy and it is neocolonialism.

THE PAKISTAN EXPERIANCE WITH DEVALUATION
The following conclution is made by a paper which evaluates the effect devaluation intended to stimuate economic growth.

conclusion
Devaluation decreases the prices of our exportable goods and simultaneously increases prices of goods we are importing from abroad as well as increases domestic price level of goods and commodities, thus reducing the purchasing power of the people of the country. It may create inflation in the country. Our long experience has shown us that devaluation is not the proper remedy for economic growth of the country. It has resulted in increasing our debt burden to the extent that nowadays it is not possible to obtain easily any aid from world lending agencies. It may be realized that for whatever reason we devalue our currency it results in manifestation of weakness of our economy to the other countries. Further, excessive devaluation of the past has adversely affected our credit rating. Moreover foreign investors are now more conscious or reluctant for making any investment in the country. Only logical path available to us is to try to reduce the cost of production of our exportable goods and increase the productivity of the goods, which will enable us to compete in the world market. Participation of everyone concerned towards the above goal will make a difference, but we should do it now not later.

Biritu is getting cheaper and cheaper by the day. What do you expect from the country that is good at producing more and more lies and hatred and less and less goods and services? Many experts and dispassionate observes think that the exchange rate should be in the neighborhood of $1 to 22-24 birr. As usual Meles will catch up with that figure pretty soon.

The Ethiopian Government didn't devalue the currency out of their own will but are FORCED to due so due to strings attached to loans from the IMF. The countries debt/GDP ratio is so high it is going to be impossible for the government to honour their debt repayment commitments to the IMF/WB as well as Chin/India. When that happens these foreign elements can request whatever they want of the government and they will have no choice but to comply in order to have their debts forgiven. Forget the short term inflation this will cause, but in the future our economy will be in shambles since no matter how much it grows a large amount of it is going to go towards re-paying loan interest in order to secure even more loans or devaluing or currency and opening up our economy to foreign interests in order to get debt relief. That is why we should be sceptical of all these infrastructure development (hydro-electric dams, road construction, etc.) since the investment is designed not to ever produce enough income to repay the initial loan. That is how the IMF/WB shackles developing nations with economic debt that they can NEVER get out of. Then they can ask the government to devalue currency, add VAT to increase revenue, liberalize telecommunication and banking, which TPLF has no choice but to do in order to get more loans.

"Ethiopia’s external debt levels are rising significantly as major public enterprises borrow externally to finance infrastructure investment. The stock of debt (in NPV terms) is set to rise from $1.3 billion at end-June 2008 to $6.0 billion by end-June 2011, with almost 70 percent of the increase accounted for by the state-owned electric power (EEPCo) and telecom (ETC) companies."

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2009/cr09296.pdf

Dear Maaza,

You have given a tutoring to the cadres. Hopefully it will sink into thier heads soon if they ever learn?

But these cadres are not anymore Meles Zenawi's cadres? they are now WB,IMF,... cadres because IMF, WB,... has given the blue book to Meles and that is why I IMF , WB ... are preaching the miraculous development in Ethiopia so that Meles can feel cool and hand them everything with bliss. " Keblawa Zbelu Abagumbahs, Zagra yiblwa"

Bravo Maaza,... they have no clue about CPI, PPI, IRR, nominal rate, effective rate, inflation rate, deflationary rate,... they will not able to say a word. Not knowing is not a crime, but they will still as if they know about everything and sell everything.

Bravo Gegna,

I am very happy there are many enligthened Ethiopians like Downturn spiral, Maaza, Jegna,...

Good guys, please whip the WB,IMF,.. telalakiwoch, lolewoch

Maaza, for sure you are temezmaza,

Your arguement is always "fiyel wodih qizemzem wodia" when you are cornerd, you go on jumping up and down, and come up with your usual copy paste buisness and try to discredit others as ignorrant. Do you think calling others ignorrant could make you an intelectual?
Economics has no rule of gravity or formula for this day and age of world economy. Economy,no matter what country,keeps fluctuating up and down,whether you like it or not.
Make up your mind. You ask economists to give an answer on this subject. All of a sudden you are now claiming you are an economist. I told you.you are suffering from an ID crisis.

hahahahaha....economics dedebit style! How an economy grows so impressively and its currency becomes worthless at the same time? The answer is the following: "The question is wrong." The economic growth hoopla is a propaganda yahoo by woyanes. Ethiopia's economy did not grow a dime in real terms. Roads were built with EU money. Cities collected more revenues and paineted some roads and looked flashy. People took that as growth. wrong.
Ethiopia became poorer, less secure, land locked, and unstable in the long run under woyanes. Take that to the bank...it will continue to appreciate as long as woyanes are in power!

Gezaee H.
First you are so arrogant to claim that you only speak the truth and others are cowards.

Second, except for your own view, you attack other's view especially those of whom you are not agreeing with.


Having said that you were the one who is saying that nazret.com should expose my Id to CIA. You can go too far to hurt your opponents.

I hope you are not of those who practiced red terror.

Don't talk about Ethiopian Muslims. You have no business if they are good or bad or this or that. Talk about your won religion. Don't mess with our faith.

Like you Assta also does this evil thing. It is a psychological fact that those who accuse others as pedophile are actaully pedophiles themselves to begin with. Ask your psychologist.


Now, here is my solution.

1. This website is not a religion website. So don't post any thing that contains any inflammatory word from toher person's of faith.

I know that some of you would have benefited from the discussion and from the contents of the materail that I posted. Hoever, some irresponible people use it for their own advantage.
3. Ethiopian Muslims can not be intimidated any more. They will ask of their rights if we want to go forward. Those who want to keep us backward will never like it.

4. Assta should be blocked from this website. Constructive criticism is welcome.
5. If anything is posted against this rule , then naxret.com should take the responsibility.

6. Iy you want about religion come and talk in religion dialogues in paltalk. If you don't know paltalk I will instruct you how to it.

finally, two years back I came to this website to find that things are going too wildly against religions. You guys did not even say a word against those comments epspecially of Assta and Halafai Mengedi. These people are lunatics and must be barred. If you don't tell openly these people what they are then you are one of them. Period. NO excuse for being silent.

Islam is a graceful relgion, very comapssionate, and peaceful. We love Islam and we will die Islam. So, some of you may have been influenced by the 1st Amendment but you should know that the spirit of the 1st Amendement is to build cordial atmoshphere.

So please take note of this. Nazret can not bring its rating higher by posting sensational comments.
Be creative and attract your own audiences. Not at the expense of my religion.
Where ever there is oppression there will be violence. No matter what religion.

To be clear, devaluation is attempting to solve serious financial problems.

It is not done in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of country wide prosperity, to be sure - unlike what some people like Halafi and his ilks would want us to believe.

Devaluation suggests it is with respect to outside major currency, and means the problem has to do with international financial dealings.

What is it trying to solve?
Mainly: insufficient export and debt crises.

(The sell of land for farming and dwindling remittances suggest there is a serious financial crisis, and not to mention the strangle hold on the economy by a few.)

More than likely, the debts by World Bank and IMF are coming due. Well you thought all those roads and building were built just out of the think air, right? Surprise surprise they are built with debts and now is a payback time...and will continue for generations with interest and all.

All this at the cost of further lowering the living standards of Ethiopians and possibly introducing more inflation!

And folks do not believe for a second the, 12%-growth or we-have-more-building-now-therefore-we- are-growing, story!

We might be staring Zimbabwe in the eye!

Please fellow Ethiopians wake up to the globalists' agenda!

Allow me to suggest a book:
"Confession of An Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins, Newyork Times bestseller.

It will teach you how the Western powers operate and you will not be surprised by anything anymore, especially by the plight of our country.

Michelin Boy(Gezaee H),

Please take your pills as soon as possible. You’ve reached 11 on the Looney bin, 1 to 10 scale!!

Bet Yo mamma went nuts, literally, because of you

ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር

Gragn,

You are a Lucifer. Why do u jump to religion? you are already black listed by ISA as a would be terrorist, linked to Al-queda. Do not even pretend you are Ethiopian. There is an Ethiopian like you. Lucifer, note whatever you say here is being watched by cyber security person. To think internet is an amazon forest is a complete ignorance? Do u think because you hide behind your PIC and nick name, you will are hidden? Everything you qrite here is being tracked by a software. Niave, ignorant, backward, primitive, qoshahsa, dirty, gimatam, you smell like a rotten egg. Nazret.com, can you knock him out from this website? he has been stirring religious hatred here. Such people must not be given chance here.

There are some people who really know what they are talking about. These people write to inform not to impress (take a note Gezaee H). They write with clarity and use words your average person can understand. Their writing is limited to a few lines. They state their position on the issue and follow it up with supporting documentations.

Unfortunately these people are being drowned out by the noise makers like,Gezaee H, people who write a lot (WAR and Pease size) but don’t say much.