The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has declared its US$150 million programme with Malawi off-track following the government’s failure to meet agreed targets with the fund.
This means Malawi will not be able to immediately access about US$20 million loan disbursement from the fund which was due to the country had the fund been satisfied with its economic performance.
Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe, has since admitted that things are out of hand and that a team of experts at his ministry is already working on reducing the budget from K930 billion as approved by Parliament in June.
An IMF team led by Washington DC-based Malawi mission chief, Oral Williams, disclosed during the presentation of their review findings at Capital Hill in Lilongwe yesterday that government has, among other things, spent beyond target.
“Fiscal slippages equivalent to about two percent of the GDP emerged during the second half of the 2014/15 fiscal year, in part because of overspending on the wage bill and these were exacerbated by revenue and external financing shortfalls,” said Williams.
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