Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor MacDonald Mafuta Mwale says an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation will arrive in the country tomorrow for discussions with Malawian authorities.
The scheduled visit comes a week after the lapse of Malawi’s four-year $175 million Extended Credit Facility (ECF) after going 18 months without a review as per an IMF update.
In an interview on the sidelines of the two-day Public Affairs Committee (PAC) Sixth All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference in Blantyre under the theme ‘Triggers to electoral disputes ahead of the September 16 2025 General Election’, the governor said the meetings with the IMF team will, among others, review the past ECF, but ruled out the possibility of a fresh programme any time soon.
He said: “What it means is that we are going to do an analysis of challenges and successes of the past ECF so that we evaluate clearly what were the issues in terms of trying to find solutions that will form the recommendations that will come out in terms of how we can deal with the country’s challenges.”
Mafuta Mwale said the visit was already set when a Malawi delegation went to Washington DC for the IMF-World Bank spring meetings.
The spring meetings provide policymakers a platform to discuss global economic issues. In the current year, they were held between April 21 and 26 in Washington DC.
Three weeks after the spring meetings, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs announced in a statement the suspension of the ECF following a mutual agreement with the IMF. However, an IMF update indicated that the programme automatically terminated after going 18 months without a review.
On prospects of Malawi attaining another facility in the near future, Mafuta Mwale said “that will not happen anytime soon”.
He also said there has been constant sharing of information between the IMF and the Malawi Government, as such, reporting was never inevitable.
In his presentation on the status of Malawi’s economy, Mafuta Mwale said external factors such as Cyclone Freddy in March 2023 made it difficult for the programme as its impact was not considered during prior negotiations for the deal approved in November 2023.
Commenting on inflation, he said it is worth noting that the general rise in prices has been on a downward spiral, but acknowledged the impact it has had on Malawians.
On his part, Secretary to the Treasury Betchani Tchereni said the IMF team will be taken on the ground, in particular to Chikwawa District, to appreciate some challenges.
Economics Association of Malawi president Bertha Bangara-Chikadza in an earlier interview said the ECF situation presents an opportunity to build resilience by managing public finances better, investing in productive sectors and finding structured markets for local produce.
The suspended ECF was negotiated by the Tonse Alliance administration after cancelling an earlier programme secured by the Democratic Progressive Party regime which was described as having conditions not in line with the new team’s priorities.
