Ethiopia's loan to South Sudan

What's New Aug 17, 2023. Ethiopia's loan to South Sudan. The Tigray Interim Administration has called for urgent assistance to combat what it says is possibly the worst desert locust invasion in recent memory, threatening the region.

Getachew Reda in a tweet posted today, appealed to the people of Tigray, the federal government of Ethiopia, and the international community to help address the “colossal challenge” posed by the locust invasion.

According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 253,300 people with 33,000 hectares of land covered by crops in the Southern Zone of Tigray are at risk of locust infestation and loss of crop production.

Locust swarms that originated in Tigray have also spread to neighboring areas. On August 4th, OCHA reported sightings of solitary adult locusts affecting five woredas or districts in the Afar Region—Abaala, Euwa, Kunneba, Megale, and Yalo.

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) announced stringent measures on August 11, 2023, to curb the growth of lending by commercial banks, in a bid to rein in persistently high inflation.

As per the new rule implemented with immediate effect, yearly credit expansion by banks stands restricted to 14 percent.

The move comes in the wake of massive loan disbursements by banks in the last fiscal year. Data shows that in the 12 months ending February 2023, banks disbursed a total of 382 billion birr in loans – a substantial increase from 209.6 billion birr in the same period a year earlier.