World Bank projects2023 growth at 1.5%
The World Bank has projected Malawi’s economy to grow by about 1.5 percent in 2023, a situation which threatens job creation and efforts to eradicate poverty.
Published October 2023 African Pulse states that consequently, Malawi has been grouped among economies with slipping growth as the economic outlook remains bleak amid an elusive growth recovery.
A statement accompanying the report says even with receding inflation, the rising instability, weak growth in the region’s largest economies, climate shocks, and lingering uncertainty in the global economy are causing deceleration of growth.
Reads the statement in part: “Overall, growth in the [Sub-Saharan Africa] region has been inadequate to reduce extreme poverty, boost shared prosperity, and create jobs.”
The bank said creating job opportunities for the youth will drive inclusive growth and turn the continent’s demographic wealth into an economic dividend.
Reserve Bank of Malawi projects the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2023 to rebound to 1.9 percent, from an earlier 2.7 percent projection and a 1.1 percent growth in 2022.
The growth projection is above Economist Intelligence Unit’s 0.7 percent and that of International Monetary Fund (IMF) pegged at 2.4 percent projection for the year.
The MW2063, the country’s long-term development plan, seeks to transform Malawi into a wealthy and self-reliant industrialised upper middle-income country by 2063.
However, in recent years, the country’s economic growth has averaged 1.6 percent since 2020.
National Planning Commission (NPC) public relations and communications manager Thom Khanje growth for 2023 was already expected to be subdued following Cyclone Freddy.
“With robust implementation of growth interventions and prospects of an IMF Extended Credit Facility programme which comes with other international financial inflows, the economy is expected to rebound in 2024 and put Malawi back on track to attain MIP-1 targets by 2030,” he said.
