Ethiopian government will miss its 11% growth target for 2015-2016 (8 July 2015 – 7 July 2016) as a result of severe drought ravaging its agricultural sector, said Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, on March 26, 2016.

“The economy will continue to register growth, if not a double-digit fast economic growth,” the Prime Minister said in a newsletter e-mailed by Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Desalegn highlighted that GDP’s real growth should be around 7-10% for the current year, against 11% for the previous one.

According to the Minister, growth of agriculture, which contributes, yearly, to about 40% of Ethiopia’s GDP, will be below initial forecasts due to El Niño weather phenomenon which significantly reduced rains in the Eastern part of Africa. The drought which hits the country, the worst in the past 50 years, already has devastating effects on local populations: about 20% of Ethiopians need food aid and nearly 400,000 others are dealing with severe malnutrition.

The government of Ethiopia has announced that average economic growth exceeded 10% average each year over the past decade.