Goodall says Malawi govt continues to cut down on expenditure

Finance minister Goodall Gondwe says the government has this month borrowed K18 billion out of the budgeted K56 billion, an indication he said government borrowing is significantly going down.

There was no independent confirmation of the figures but if true, Malawi could be on track for the much needed extended credit facility with the IMF.

“We are cutting down on expenditure. I don’t think we will borrow more beyond the K18 billion,” said Gondwe.

Last month, the Finance minister said the government had not borrowed any money and assured parliament that Malawi’s traditional donors would be back in Malawi a year after leaving the country mainly due to cashgate, the looting of public money at Capital Hill by politicians, civil servants and businessmen.

The International Monetary Fund team is expected in the country next month to evaluate and assess if the government has met conditionalities set by the bank.

“Even the IMF resident representative agrees that we have done far much better this time,” said Gondwe sounding more upbeat than ever before.

IMF resident representative to Malawi, Godfrey Oestreicher has said the team will review the targets under ECF and examine the revised National Budget among others.

“The coming of the team will examine the economic trends and evaluate the ECF programs to determine if Malawi is back on track or not,” he said.

The team will also review major economic indicators such as inflation, reviewing government’s cash books to determine the correlation between the budget and the expenses by government, he added.

The envoy expressed optimism that the country’s program under the fund will get back on track

The withdrawal of the aid has led to total collapse of public health services in Malawi.