Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Goodall Gondwe on Tuesday said the government has achieved economic stability and they are doing everything possible in order to sustain a recovery in economic growth.
Gondwe was speaking in Mangochi when he opened the Monetary Policy Conference.
Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Goodall Gondwe on Tuesday said the government has achieved economic stability and they are doing everything possible in order to sustain a recovery in economic growth.
Gondwe was speaking in Mangochi when he opened the Monetary Policy Conference.
He said the government needs to address the weak fiscal environment by maintaining the upward trends in revenue mobilization and coupling them with expenditure discipline.
Dzonzi said currently the effects of stable economy are not trickling down to people at the grassroots.
He said reducing rural poverty in Malawi will require among other elements; stabilise growth that is consistent and strong, raise the labour incomes of the poor by increasing the productivity of agriculture and facilitating movement into new, more remunerative nonfarm activities, give larger and well-directed transfers to the poor by reforming existing safety net programmes to help them to protect their incomes and assets against shocks.
Malawi is a predominantly agro-based and most farmers who produce our staple food live in rural areas.
In his speech, Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor Daliso Kabambe said the conference is very crucial because it will allow stakeholders to deliberate on whether to cap interest rates.
Kabambe said RBM have been capping interest rates since 1987 and that they remain fixed.
He said that the economy has currently revitalized but he was quick to add that its fruits cannot be reaped now, saying it takes time for the people to benefit from the economy which is just stabilizing.
The bank lending rates have reduced from 45% to 24% and this is not a mean achievement.
Some of the high-level people to speak at the conference include reserve bank governors Dr. Denny Kalyalya from Zambia and Dr Patrick Njoroge from Kenya.
