World Bank to cushion Malawi‘s financial plan wih $40m – Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Joseph Mwanamvekha has disclosed World Bank is supporting Malawi with a budgetary support of about $40 million.

Mwanamvekha told journalists at Parliament in Lilongwe on Friday after he presented the K511.2 billion provisional budget that will allow government operations to continue for the first quarter of the 2019/2010 financial year.

The minister is expected to meet with the World Bank representative on Tuesday next week to officially announce the budgetary support.

“Let me also say that we have received $30 million from the Chinese Government. That money is coming next week and they have given us the freedom to use it for any other projects,” he said.

Mwanamvekha said he would make sure that such support is used for the intended purpose for the benefit of all Malawians.

He observed that issues of corruption have marred some areas and as such he would ensure that such issues are dealt with.

During debate on the provisional budget members of parliament raised concerns over corruption and debt management among others.

He said ensuring that the economy continues to grow and that it trickles to the poor man in the village is paramount and would want to see that the economy is stable.

“When I’m talking about economic stability I’m talking about microeconomic fundamentals like interest rates, exchange rate, domestic debt and other fundamentals that need to remain stable.

“And supported by that, I would like to see to it that the economy is growing because stability without growth is meaningless. We want to make sure that it grows and make sure that we are able to create employment,” he said.

Mwanamvekha asked authorization from the House to allow him withdraw an amount of K511.2 billion from the Consolidated Fund to enable the Government deliver services for a period of four months from July 1, 2019 to October 31, 2019.

The move is in consistent with section 178 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi. This amount of money will be part of the 2019/2020 financial year Budget.