Goodall says Kwacha’s decline close to end: Pegs Malawi economic growth at 4%
Malawi’s Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe has expressed confidence in government efforts to stabilise the weakening Kwacha currency which has fallen more than 300 percent, to 715 to the dollar from around 160 since 2014 when President Peter Mutharika took power.
Combined with a poor maize harvest, the teetering kwacha has pushed inflation to 25 percent from 18 percent in March last year, as the cost of living has gone up with accelerating food prices heaping misery on lower-income households.
The Finance Minister Gondwe said black market rates – often a useful exchange rate gauge in poor, developing economies – indicated the kwacha’s decline was nearing its end.
“We think the kwacha will stabilise this week or next week,” Gondwe said. “If you go to the black market area you will find that the difference between the black market rate and the official rate is not much. Which means that it has reached its equilibrium.”
The kwacha has been laid low by a loss of donor funds, falling export revenue from the key crop, tobacco, and a general loss of faith in African currencies as commodity prices fall.
Gondwe has also said Malawi should see economic growth pick up to more than 4 percent in 2016 from about 3 percent last year as the country recovers from a drought caused by the El Niño weather pattern.
Agriculture accounts for almost a third of Malawi’s economy and provides the livelihood of 80 percent of the population. Last year, the country suffered floods, then a drought that has hit production of the maize crop across southern Africa.
“We don’t think the weather will be as bad this year as last. Growth could be higher than 4 percent in 2016,” Gondwe said.
Malawi’s central bank in September was forecasting growth of 5.4 percent in 2015 and 6.5 percent in 2016 after a 6.0 percent expansion in 2014, but the weather has cast doubt on those forecasts. The International Monetary Fund said in September 2015 growth would slow to 3 percent.—Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard, Reuters
Mwachekula imwe. vilekeni waka ivi va chuma kwa ana wadokowadoko!
kaya…..watelse can we sae??
kikikikiki koma mkulu ameneyu manyazi alibe…..sunday south african Rand inali pa 40 lero iripa 47,nde mkumati next week kwacha itani????
the 0.25% limit set by Reserve bank for minus or appreciation of kwacha limit is wrong that is causing depreciation, reserve bank should change that to complete free floating then the kwacha can go back to 600 to a dollar, at the momnet it can only appreciate 0.25% per day so with this policy kwacha will never stabilise it will only lose more value
Mbalame iwweee ukutimvetsa kuwawa
Its only M alawi on earth WHERE BLACK MARKER IS ALLOWED. ………..MINISTER UNDER……………PRESIDE
NT.
Munganya iwe don’t make us insult you. Just go home and rest. Everytime you are the Finance Minister the country is always on fire. The Kwacha stabilising at K750? Are the wages you give us also stabilising? I think Malawi can do without The Department of Economic Planning.What do we benefit from this department as the department always plan to weaken the Kwacha
stupid u don’t have vyantonda vocabulary in your mouth
Kungolandira tindalama taku China basi mwati muyambe matukutuku… Tikuonani agalu inu… Mwatizunza kokwana anyaphaphi…
the reason for black market and official rate close to equating is that there is no much demand of the dollar on the black market since the demand for goods on the domestic market has also slowed due to inflation.
Asa uwu nde usilu usilu hevy. Ma rubbish PITALA, GUDO GONDWE & ur DPP fraternity…..!
Teargass fired at Chilomoni ADMARC as am writing this (03/02/2016 – 09:15 am), people scramble to buy maize.. Stop telling us lies.. If life is easy for you such that you can manage to wait for the kwacha to stabilise, ife we can not. We want a solution now..
Hahaha you gauge the decline by comparison with black market rates ? And you call yourself a finance minister … U do know black market is illegal ?? Poor country poor leaders
Don’t blame Goodall for the disaster that is happening in this country. What is happening to the economy is just a manifestation or symptom of decaying country that lack levelheaded leadership. Ask this person who calls himself president of this country. Make no mistake Peter Mutharika is a disaster. The worst president in the history of this country. As a nation we lack direction. We simply don’t know where are going. There is no shared vision as Peter simply doesn’t know what to do. Pathetic President. Sorry Malawians we are really in problems. Its all our stupidity because we all along knew this person. Take it or leave it. He is non performer.
Rubbish ppl akhungulmwe tavuka na mwe
We better go back to Nyasaland.
So our finance minister is using black market as an indicator to project the state of our currency? Really? Are there no intelligent and reliable indicators within his ministry to use? I thought trading of our currency on the black market is illegal? What was Goodall doing there then? Asamatinamize kuti ife tizikasintha ku ma bank pamene iyeyo zake akumakasintha ku black market
Yes that time of the year where Kwacha is fixed in order to steal from tobacco farmers, and lie to people that the Kwacha is doing fine. How come that happens around this time of the year? Isn’t it ironic to see that every year farmers buy expensive inputs and then sell their produce at market value less than what they paid in buying inputs? Big Thieves!
Malawians, you have to live with it. That is what you voted for.
Malawians, you have to live with it. That is what you voted.
I’ve seen many articles suggesting that Goodall is past his prime. I now totally agree that this man has lost his marbles and should quit honorably,. Where was he when the Kwacha was declining on a daily basis. We heard no comment from him and he took no corrective measures to stop the trend..
Is this not the man who told the entire Nation that come February we would all be smiling. Mr. Gondwe I am not smiling and I cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel.
Please do not fool us. In 2014 December you borrowed money from PTA to stabilise the Kwacha. Now the Chinese have come with aid package that will bring in forex and you start to brag about Kwacha stabilisation. This will not solve the Malawi problem bu only alleviate it. Th Money we are borrowing from the Chinese will have to be paid and with very high interest. We are mortgaging the future of our country to the Chinese.
Countries that have bad governance (political, economic, social etc) in Africa rush to the Chinese for relief as they put no contionalities to their loans. But it is at a financial price. We are running away from the west because they want financial prudence. Shame on Malawi.
This drunkard and his friend at Kamuzu Palace need some home based care services. And why are we as a nation letting these grannies to mislead us?
Mabvuto Banda please note that Kwacha was MK165 in April 2012 in high street banks and nearly MK300 at the Blackmarket when Bingu died. Kwacha was hovering around MK4000.00 in June 2014 and it was amidst tobacco season when the Kwacha annually appreciates.
Now back to the content, the author could have done better by providing more information regarding the place where Hon Gondwe made the predictions.
but mpaka comparing with black marke. really!!!!!
And you expect to develop with all these lies. Mukufuna kugulitsa ndani kuti muziti kwacha ichita stabilize ? Xpyiiiiiii
the truth is tizisiye mmanja Mwa mlungu tonga munanela muja
Koma chonde ku (mg) zinthu kwa ife aphwawi sizikuyenda china chilichonse pa market chakwela mtengo malipilo ndi omweanja akamuzu ndikudandaula kwambiri kukhani ya chakudya chonde atsogoleli tifa ndi njala ndiye muzasogolela ndani? Poti akamati mfumu amanena anthu yesesani kuti kwacha isike pano zili bwino kuti padziko lonse mafuta sanayambe kukwela akangokwela ndikukumana ndi mavutowa kaya zikuvutani kuposa pano
Our leaders do not know how to save people
Amdala, Brian Banda asked you point blank: ‘ when are you going to retire?’ You see Amdala, mental arithmatic by itself is no longer applicable in managing finances. There is ifmis out there which is compatible with only high tech, fresh brains.
Those are kicks of a dying horse.
My guess is that government is banking on the Chinese relief money …..since it is practically impossible to procure maize say in the next two months they can as well borrow that money and use it for the stabilization of the kwacha just as it borrowed forex last time for the same purpose. But with the opening of the tobacco markets only weeks away tobacco farmers should also be watching this currency manipulation with interest.
A failed state.
How can you be certain that the currency will stabilise next week? What new thing have you done? Are you fixing it?
Ndikudikira!
Waukape ameneyu!
Waukape Gondwe uyu
G gondwe panya pako mbuzi yankhalamba ndi mapwevupwevu
wakalamba uyu
This is craziness for old man, why can’t U just leave it for young guys
It is sad and disheartening to hear our esteemed and learned economist in the name of Goodall Gondwe misinforming the whole nation. Goodall is a bright economist but unfortunately his thinking has been clouded by politics .Anyway that is where his bread is buttered.
But it is an open secret that our economy is in shambles and all our economic indicators are in red. It will be impossible for the country to register a 4% growth unless it will be a miracle. Maybe we might register that growth since he has put the Malawian economy in the hands of God?…Let wait and see,
Or maybe he will borrow money from MRA like what he did in 2009 with his boss an economist turned politician and falsified the books of accounts cheating Malawians that the economy was growing at an alarming rate of 9% the second fastest growing economy after Qatar. Really? But what followed…massive shortages of fuel and all essential commodities the first of its kind in Malawian history…By the way let me remind Hon. Gondwe that altering or falsifying documents is crime in Malawi…anyway khoswe akakhala pa mkhate sapheka.
Voice of a lunatic finance minister and his pus filled president. Your counterpart in Tanzania has banned the use of 4×4 fuel guzzling vehicle in all government departments in order to save funds for essential public service but you still milk the already thin cow in the name of entitlements. You and your minister keeps talking about austerity on one hand and plundering on the other. Foolish idiots!
Malawi sidzathekaso
Tsopano gudall ndi mzake pitala kuchalila kubela alimi ovutikafe, koma boma limeneli ndiye ndilakuba zeedi
plz Dr.Gondwe dont cook figures we are about to sell our tobacco.
Mbuzi za anthu DPP. What do you expect when 78 years, APM, Goodall and Chaponda, are running (or lack thereof) affairs of a nation? They have no clue, whatsover….
Mbuzi za anthu DPP. What do you expect when 78 years, APM, Goodall and Chaponda, are running (or lack thereof) a nation? They have no clue, whatsover….
Have you been told by God? As long as mathanyura is the president the economy will continue to misbehave. As a circumvent to the problem let the minister allow all transaction to be done in us dollar as its the case with Zimbabwe
eya ndiye ngati kwacha yikhara bwino,muzatsitse mashugayo lero mtauni shuga uli pa K700 ndiye kumudzi kaya koma boma ili
This old man should just get lost . Please give us a break you can go sleep at Ndata if you don’t mind.
This man should have been fired long time ago. He can not articulate any policy to stabilize the kwacha apart from hoping the weather will not be bad this year getting opinion from black market about pararell kwacha value. He is a chindele among atumbukas I think even though his lot will cry murder if this man is sacked.
So tiyamba liti kuyimba mmanja wadada Gondwe?
Mawu ofuna pobera – cashgate- sinanga tikuyandikira miyezi ya budget.
That’s our country;one of the poorest in world.Our Agricultural industry was planned incorrectly from the beginning inspite of liaising with Taiwan who flooded Malawi with Agricultural Missions and with Israel who flooded Malawi with Secret service missions instead of utilizing them more in Agriculture. We could have been more advanced with Agricultural economy if our priorities were not only focussed on tobacco growing
Today, we will blame our leaders and we can replace them as many times as we can if we had such an opportunity but still nothing could work in a very poor country like ours. We just need a revolutionary change to altogether and that’s where all parties and stake holders should join hands and work on this revolutionary change. No single party or person will ever come right in reviving our economy of this extremely poverty stricken country.
Goodall the kwacha will not stop to devalue because of Reserve Bank blunder allowing exporters to keep 100% of there export proceeds. Change it back to 50% immediate conversion to kwacha and then you will see Malawi will have forex. At the moment Limbe leaf, JTI, Africa leaf all these exporters have forex but they are not changing as they are haording and causing devaluation. SO please tell Chuka to reverse this policy and also remove the 0.25% appreciation limit of downfall, as this should be changed to free floating as this will increase the conversions they make and it will help Kwacha to appreciate. World bank are right this policy RBM introduced is ineffective and should be dropped
Chimene timayembekezera kuti mutiwuza sizimenezo. Tikufuna mutiwuze kuti mwatula pansi udindo. Osati zopusa zanuzo.
how old is this grand pa?he needs retirement.
Wabodza Goodall kwacha wagwa 75% in 6 months, this is poor economics. This is what you have given us for voting for DPP. bola We are worse of now then when JB was leading. Maiwale economics munuphunzira
Tangokhalani chete madala! Accept you have run out of ideas.
We have heard this several times before! We know that GG is supposed to say what he has said because that is where his food comes from but as a person he knows that things are not ok in Malawi, at least for the majority of us.
Mukuwuza ana ?
Poor FM!vomerezani zinthu zakukanikani and I don’t think u can perform a miracle to reverse the economy!!!! asileni anyamata mukapume mwina mkutalikisako masiku amoyowu…
Izi ndiye zmatenda temve ziti lero our kwacha will stabilise in May Mawa our kwacha will stabilise this week or next