Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe has projected that the country’s economy will stabilize by May this year.In an update on the economy presented in the capital Lilongwe on Tuesday, Gondwe said most of the conditions that donors set for Malawi, including under the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Extended Credit Facility, are almost fulfilled.
“We are on track to fulfil conditions that would make Malawi’s economy to stabilize (and) at the same time win major donor confidence like the World Bank, IMF and the European Union, among others,” he said.
He added that the country was about to complete some of the conditions such as the Access to Information Bill, which donors wanted to be passed as soon as possible for them to release the financial support.
Apart from the institutional donors, he said, the country was expecting bilateral donors to come back.
But Economic Association of Malawi executive director Edward Chilima said his body was not sure about the prospects of the country’s economy as it was still affected by various challenges.
“The country’s economic outlook looks gloomier in 2016 than positive. The economy does not show any signs of recovery unless government comes up with strong measures that could turn the economy around,” he said.
He noted that measures like minimizing the level of public finance expenditure, reducing domestic borrowing and boosting irrigation farming, implementation of public sector reforms could be helpful to the economy.
Source: StarAfrica
