CSO laments poor economy
The Leadership Institute for Transparency and Accountability (Lita) says there is need for government to pursue reforms and implement policies to revive the economy in the current year.
The organisation’s executive director Goodwell Logeya said in a statement made available to Nation on Sunday that the state of the economy, which deteriorated in the previous year, has hardened the lives of many Malawians.
Logeya said this was apparent due in part to government’s negligence to control the economy.
He said: “What was even more worrisome was the gross negligence of the [President Lazarus] Chakwera administration to control the economy. The Malawi kwacha went on losing its grip with no political will to bring it into total control.”
In the previous year, the Malawi kwacha kept losing its grip, mainly due to forex auctions and its devaluation on two separate occasions, in May and November 2023.
In May 2022, the kwacha was devalued by 25 percent and by 44 percent in November. The forex auctions, on the other hand, resulted in the local currency depreciating by 13.1 percent, losing about 82.1 percent.
Logeya said the situation resulted in the dwindling of Malawians’ income which could not match the prices of goods and services which kept escalating.
“The prices of basic food commodities, including maize, went up, without the administration’s effort to regulate the prices for the reach of the poorest Malawians.
“The series of the kwacha devaluation have crippled the economy with no hope of recovery,” he said.
Logeya said salaries of those in the civil service sadly remain disproportionate to the devaluation rate.
He said with such unfortunate scenarios, Malawians’ hope in the current administration to address the deteriorating socio-economic status came to an all-time low which signalled lack of confidence towards the nine-party led administration.
What was disheartening, according to Logeya, was Chakwera’s absence to address the numerous socio-economic problems that had marauded the citizens as he was mostly travelling abroad.
He, therefore, said it would not be wrong if Malawians would say that they have had an absent President in the previous year.
Our efforts to seek reaction from Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu, who is the official government spokesperson proved futile as he was out of reach on Friday.
But in his national address marking the start of 2024, Chakwera expressed optimism for a better year ahead owing to numerous reforms that his administration has been undertaking.
