ADDIS ABABA, June 08 (Xinhua) -- A draft budget bill debated at Ethiopia's House of People's Representative on Thursday showed a 9.6 percent increase for the next fiscal year.
The draft bill, now under further scrutiny by the parliament's budget and finance affairs standing committee, provides 320.8 billion ETB (close to 13.9 billion U.S. dollars) budget for the coming fiscal year, marking a 9.6 percent increase as compared to the current fiscal year.
Ethiopian government's priority areas that include infrastructure, education, agriculture, water, and health constitutes 61 percent of the total budget allocation, according to Abraham Tekeste, Finance and Economic Cooperation Minister of Ethiopia.
The bill, yet to be approved by the Ethiopian parliament, is expected to fulfill the regional governments' necessary requirements for the effective implementation of the second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) of Ethiopia.
Briefing members of the Ethiopian parliament about performances of current Ethiopian fiscal year (2016/17), Tekeste noted that Ethiopia's per capita income has increased from 396 U.S. dollars six years ago to 794 dollars.
According to the World Bank overview on Ethiopia's economy, Africa's second-most populous country "has experienced strong and broad-based growth over the past decade, averaging 10.8 percent annually from 2003/04 to 2014/15 compared to the regional average of 5.4 percent.
