President Mutharika lied on economy – Malawi economist body
Normally it is not a criminal offence for a politician to lie on a political rally but President Peter Mutharika told “many lies” in his state of the nation address in parliament on the state of the country’s economy, the Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) has said.
In his state of the nation address during the opening of budget session of parliament, Mutharika said the Malawi economy grew by 5.5 percent and it is expected to rebound to higher levels averaging 7 percent or higher from next year.
Mutharika’s adventurous relationship with the truth has been exposed by Ecama president Henry Kachaje, who said the President’s claim of economic boom was lies, damn lies!
Kachaje pointed out that the projections on the ground raises questions on how can the Malawi economy “continues to enjoy positive growth of 5.5 percent” when two major economic sectors- the private and agriculture-experienced a decline in their productivity and output.
“How can we be sure that ‘the economy is expected to rebound to higher levels averaging 7 percent’ when we have just experienced the worst floods in recent history and agricultural output is expected to drop by 30 percent,” queried Kachaje observations when he presented a paper this week in Salima at an event that was organised by Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in partnership with Freedom House to reflect on Mutharika’s performance in the last 12 months.
According to Kachake, Mutharika’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has also not lived up to its set goals within the year.
The Ecama president said there is no way Malawi should expect the inflation to drop further from 18.3 percent to 16.5 percent as Mutharika projected when Malawi is facing hunger and prices of food are likely to go up.
“How will the interest rates go down when inflation is unlikely to drop significantly? How will people’s disposable incomes increase when they will be buying food at higher prices?” he queried.
Kachaje said the projections that Mutharika raised are unrealistic.
I do remember well,mr president asked nation that now ndalowa pa pando ndipaseni miyezi itatu ndi sinthe zinthu itatu yatha akuti ikhalae six month yathanso akuti muone chakachino chikamatha chaka chatha akuti five years ino ikamatha miyoyo ya malawi izasitha tioneretu panopa kwinako ndikoti tizizapereka ma good ngati mwakanika pano ndiye mukapangira kuti sopano tasukusula palibe kutinyegerera ndi nsalu za chipani sitimadya ife nsalu
If you are not an economist and you don’t know anything about economy then why are you commenting?It is better just to shut up and let those who have the expertise comment.I is like a sick person going to a hospital and arguing with a doctor.Shame!That is why it is high time we vote for technical president;say Electrical,Civil,Mechanical or any Engineer.Economists just guess and dream and their dreams never come to reality but Engineers design,test and make tangible productions we can all see with our own naked fucking eyes.They produce reality!Forget about APM and his DPP delivering.We need a president… Read more »
Kodi CHRR has now been registered as Economics NGoO? CHRR was supposed to be discussing of whether it was the right of the Salima Villagers to burn the thieves who were caught stealing goats and not figures as Mtambo is blank in Economics.
Kachaje, Kachaje, Kachaje! What a poor fela? Your voice and your thoughts all rot. You have never said something outside the box. As ECAMA man, you should have thought of giving government some advice on how to move forward and not just talking rubbish.
You must be ignorant of what human rights entails. Don’t you know that human rights include economic rights? We have right to social security which covers right to affordable housing, medicine, education, childcare, enough money to live on and medical help when old; workers’ rights which include right to do a job, right to a fair wage, right to join a trade union. All these human rights cannot be enjoyed without economic prosperity.
Lets all pray for our President from this lying spirit as it is getting worse and we aRe the ones who are going to suffer.
If the president made a prediction, it’s like a prophet saying this will happen. It may happen or not. So a prediction has an probability error which can either be small or big. So if the president made unrealistic prediction, what is wrong with Kachaje and his cohorts to make a plausible prediction? Something is not adding up here. A very baseless argument and accusation. Or else Nyasatimes is poor at presenting issues to do with economics. The more people argue, the more foolish they look. In short, a prediction can’t be faulted and be made into a big issue.… Read more »
Kachaje statement is empty. he could give us the true figures against the one he is disagreeing
He is not an economist but an american lawyer.
Remember he mistaken $ sign with 8
kkkkk
Malawi is on auto pilot mode
Politics aside me though not an economist could hear the president speech that it was full of lies , someone reading something which he even didn’t understand himself
Agree with fairness,even within ecama,they might disagree,economists always disagree no wonder Kachajes argument!
Its high time malawi……we need to look back and take an action before sunsets…….