Newly appointed Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha announced that ensuring economic stability will be his primary tasks in office. He casted a vision of lowering interest rates.
Mwanamvekha banked on tobacco sales, saying that dollars will help stabilise the kwacha, as about K76 billion has already been made from tobacco sales. Recently Figures from National Statistical Office (NSO) have shown that Malawi’s headline inflation has eased by 0.2 percentage points in May 2019 to 8.9% from 9.1%. According NSO, a drop in food inflation has attributed the easing in headline inflation, as food inflation was recorded at 13% in May, down from 13.8% in April while non-food inflation stood at 5.7%, up from 5.4% in April.
Meanwhile the economy is struggling with the manufacturing sector which is another major driver of profits in the country. The five-year Nation Export Strategy (NES) that closed in 2018, has been called a fail, during its review by stakeholders and involved players in the sector.