Goodall insists Malawi economy in a mess – Report

Finance, Economic Planning and Development Minister, Goodall Gondwe who admitted in parliament that the country is still passing through “turbulent times” has maintained that Malawi economy is in a mess, according to published report.

In an exclusive interview carried by the daily newspaper, The Nation on Tuesday, Gondwe admitted that Malawi has not yet established a stable macroeconomic environment.

He insisted that the unstable economic environment is an after effect of Cashgate corruption scandal which led donors to stop budgetary support.

“Instead of paying fir current services, we are paying for past services and the mismatch between required resources and required expenditure is such that it will have to involve you into borrowing

“Now the more you borrow, the more you mess up your macroeconomics plus the fact that you encourage fraud when you incur arrears,” Gondwe is quoted in the paper saying.

Gondwe told the paper that he has commission an exercise to identify what he called “wasteful spending”, disclosing that government owes the private sector at least K155 billion for goods and services procured.

The domestic debt is at K576 billion.

“I have [someone] currently trying to identify waste in government. By next year, we should start implementing some of the recommendations. Others may take longer because they may concern entrenchment of rights of individuals,” he said.

Gondwe wants government to create a stable macroeconomic environment that also provides conditions for attainment of high quality economic growth rates.