Malawi hopes new budget will sustain economic gains: Mwanamvekha carrying a flicker of hope

Finance, Economic Planning and Development  Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha will table the 2019/20 National Budget on Monday at Parliament in Lilongwe, promising that one of his main focus in the financial plan will be to sustain economic gains that the economy recently achieved, giving credit to the leadership of President Peter Mutharika.

Mwanamvekha is carrying a flicker of hope to Malawians, after basking a reservoir of experience, having worked at the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), Malawi Savings Bank (MSB), and also having served as a Secretary to the Treasury as well as a Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism and Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development.

He has also worked for several commercial banks prior to launching his political career.

“Some of the issues that will be in the budget have come from the pre-budget consultations that we recently undertook with various stakeholders across the country.But people should not expect that all the issues that they requested have been taken on board,” said the country’s purse keeper.

But he assured that the budget will put more focus on job creation, economic stability and also sustainable debt management which he said are policies of President Mutharika.

Mwanamvekha also said the budget has been designed to ensure that there is more women empowerment, while also accommodating the physically challenged and the vulnerable people including people living with albinism.

Chairperson of the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament, Sosten Gwengwe, has said their expectation is that government will come up with a realistic budget which matches revenue with needs.

The Treasury Czar will be presenting the budget at a time when the domestic economy has stabilised as manifested by major economic indicators.

Malawi’s headline inflation is still in single digit at 9.3 percent as of July 2019.

Interest rates have also fallen sharply in most commercial banks following successive reduction in policy rate by the, Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM).

The policy rate stands at 13.5 percent.

On one hand, the exchange rate, which massively depreciated in recent months, has stabilised to around K740 to a US dollar.

The Budget Meeting is the second one in the 48th Session of the National Assembly inaugurated in June this year with a presentation of a K511 billion provisional budget currently in use.

According to a statement from the National Assembly, after the Finance Minister’s budget presentation on Monday, the House will break into cluster committees for 10 days to allow members to scrutinise the statement.

The cluster system is a new model adopted in 2013 and implemented in the budget meeting in 2014. It gives members a chance to ask government officials questions in line with what has been presented in the budget.

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