The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today said Malawi is in ‘a crisis situation’ and called on authorities to ensure ‘drastic actions’ aimed at normalizing relations between the country and its development partners.
IMF has also condemned recent revelations of misappropriating substantial amounts of public funds at Capital Hill, saying the situation has triggered anger among Malawians as well as uncertainty to Malawi’s economic outlook.
“This is a crisis situation and needs drastic actions. I am talking of the crisis because the fiscal situation was designed on the inflows of substantial amount of external support and that is at risk because of what you are probably calling it cash-gate,” said IMF Mission Chief Tsidi Tsikata at a news conference in Lilongwe marking the end of a two-week mission by IMF.
A team from Washington-based IMF, led by Tsikata, was in Lilongwe between November 5 to 20, 2013, to conduct discussions for the third and forth reviews under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program.
Added Tsikata: ” In our interaction with Malawians, we also felt a lot of anger and frustrations [among Malawians] and I think the combination of anger among Malawians themselves speaks the challenge that the government faces and the government needs to be taking measures to address the concerns of Malawians .”
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