Malawi’s K2,000 bank note christened ‘Trump’: Economist says Kwacha weakening still continue

Some Malawians are paying tribute to US president-elect Donald Trump by christening the new K2,000 bank note to him following his victory.

Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, Charles Chuka said the current highest note of K1000 has lost value hence the decision to introduce introduce the new kwacha note, K2000 on 19 December, 2016.

But Malawians mostly on social media switly christened the new note which will bear the portrait of  freedom fight late Reverend John Chilembwe  as “Trump”.

Meanwhile,  renowned economist Thomas Munthali has warned that depreciation of the Malawi currency is likely to continue if the government fails to put in place control measures on expenditure.

Speaking to private owened  Zodiak Broadcating Services on Saturday, the Zimbabwe based Malawi economist said the RBM decision to introduce K2000 note shows that the central bank has acknowledged the economic challenges facing the country.

Munthali has said the central bank decision is aimed at reducing printing costs of the money in face of high inflation and devaluation of the local currency, pointing out that the over expenditure by the central government has contributed to the prevailing situation.

“I don’t think the central bank role is to manage devaluation. They are not there to stop devaluation but they have to make sure that if circumstances are pointing towards a situation where devaluation will continue, they have to find mechanism of addressing that. And by introducing this K2000 bank note it in no way we are going to stop devaluation.

“In fact what we have addressed are the symptoms of the challenges we are in and they think that the challenges will not be coming off any time soon. It goes back to the need for those in authorities like those in government to reduce expenditure levels because high inflation and pressure are as a result of the central government over expenditure,” said Munthali.

Chuka also said the introduction of the note has been necessitated due to the depreciation of the kwacha and inflation.The kwacha is currently trading around K730 to the dollar while inflation hovers around 22 percent.

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