It has been done before. Goldman Sachs allegedly finagled Greece's economic numbers prior to its joining the Euro. That doctored outlook may have played a role with some creditors when they decided to buy Greece's junk debt.
There could be a case of disparity between what is on paper and the reality on ground. I remember reading an analysis on the interwebs that said that to gauge the warmth of a countries economy, take a drive in its prominent urban areas. This was in reference to India and China where there is a lot of new infrastructure (buildings etc etc), and while the towers look impressive on a fly-by, the are dark and un-inhabited at night,...telling a different story of tenants not being able to take them up...ergo slower growth than appears on paper. Narrow point, but still goes to show ..

You are way off topic. The person who opened this thread is talking about foreign direct investment. FDI means getting a controlling ownership in a business enterprise in one country by an entity based in another country.

The definition of FDI does not include buying junk bonds.

Junk bonds are covered under portfolio foreign investment, which is a passive investment in the securities of another country such as public stocks and bonds

Yes it is easy to fake your balance sheet that trick investors into buying bonds, stocks and other investments that can be easily disposed of.

But if you want an investor to come and create real jobs in your country by investing in factories, services or even real estate, its much harder to fool them.

How will you fool them into thinking your country has good transport infrastucture when they can clearly see a city choking in traffic?

How will you cheat them that security is good and the crime rate is low?

[
And you have decided to be narrow. The thread title is Is Ethiopia faking economic growth stats? ...and my point is its possible, with bad results. So it doesn't exactly fit the intended narrative of FDI, so what? I hope I got the message across.
To be pedantic, like you i) the original poster didn't offer an opinion or additional commentary, just a copy-paste of the article and a link [ -so you can't possibly infer what they intended] and
ii) I replied to your comment in which no mention of FDI is made.

[
And you have decided to be narrow. The thread title is Is Ethiopia faking economic growth stats? ...and my point is its possible, with bad results. So it doesn't exactly fit the intended narrative of FDI, so what? I hope I got the message across.
To be pedantic, like you i) the original poster didn't offer an opinion or additional commentary, just a copy-paste of the article and a link [ -so you can't possibly infer what they intended] and
ii) I replied to your comment in which no mention of FDI is made.

Glad to see masukuma with his twisted, warped logic gracing this thread.

Go on tell us again how an immoral and corrupt action is OK so long as it is legal.

Can one be right, always.......... asking for afriend?

Yet some African countries are bucking the trend. Ethiopia’s manufacturing has grown by an average of over 10% a year in 2006-14, albeit from a very low base, partly because it has courted foreign investors. “We approached Holland’s horticultural firms, China’s textile and leather firms and Turkey’s garment firms. Now we’re bringing in German and Swiss pharmaceuticals,” says Arkebe Oqubay, a minister who promotes Ethiopia’s industrialisation.

Ha-Joon Chang, a co-author of UNECA’s report, argues that Ethiopia’s relative success has come from its focused policy. Poor countries often find it hard to decide whether to spread their new infrastructure widely or to focus on the most promising areas. Rather than electrify the whole country, Ethiopia has concentrated on providing power and transport links to its industrial parks. It also seems wise to bring in firms with links to industries that already exist there. “Domestic firms learn from being in the same value chain as the foreign firm,” says Mr Page. Firms buying from local suppliers tend to raise local quality by sending managers and technicians to them. This helps them to produce more sophisticated goods.

Start using google. The internet is your friend. It will help alleviate your ignorance.

A basic google search will give you the definition of immoral: not conforming to accepted standards of morality, wrongful, bad, unethical.

As such :
1. Waiguru buying bic pens for Ksh 8000 may be legal but it is wrong and unethical.
2. A political bigwig grabbing primary school land may be legal but it is wrong and unethical.
3. Cutting a back door deal to get paid Ksh 35 million of tax payer money is immoral and corrupt

They do not conform to accepted standards therefore they are unethical. The accepted standard is to pay a person what they are capable of earning in the open market.

They are corrupt because they did not follow standard procedures. There was no oversight. Sarah Serem said in May that she is not aware of the Ksh 35m. This means the treasury bypassed the oversight committee. Heck even Nyachae said he was unaware. And he also said that such deals are hidden from the public. Bypassing the oversight committee and hiding from the taxpaying public is classic corruption.

The fact that I have to explain why this is immoral and corrupt is quite frankly shocking.

Is your friend Kenyan, Ethiopian or Albanian?

The year 2011 ET created 1.18 Million jobs. FYI they are in the year 2012 Since Sept 2019