Malawi’s year on year inflation rate in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) is still peaking above the region’s average to stand out as the second highest in the region trading bloc.
A latest update on inflation figures of individual member states that make up Comesa puts Malawi’s inflation at 24.6, coming second to Zambia’s 29.0 percent.
This means that the price of goods and services in Malawi continues to increase at a fast rate as compared to other countries in the region.
The development spells tough times for most Malawians especially in the wake of recent findings from the Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) indicating that the gap between the cost of living and wages still remains wide.
In its June Basic Needs Basket Survey, CfSC said the price of basic commodities such as maize and tomatoes increased by an average of between 17 and 30 percent, placing more challenges on low income earners to finance their domestic needs.
While neighbouring countries were seen to be managing their inflation status, Malawi’s inflation continued to stand out in Comesa throughout 2015, even closing the year 2015 with the highest inflation figure in the regional bloc.
Commenting earlier, the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) blamed the outcome on policies that are exerting pressure on consumption rather than production.
MCCCI Chief Executive Officer, C hancellor Kaferapanjira, noted that authorities are more concerned with stabilising the kwacha at the expense of addressing other key indicators.
“ We are not producing enough because the sector in not being incentivised enough,” he said.
Kaferapanjira advised government to shift its focus on lumping resources on the fertiliser subsidy programme which he said is failing to achieve enough production levels to ensure food security.
“We need to invest in irrigation so that we can produce enough to bridge the gap between production and imports so that the inflation figures can go down,”
He proposed the greenbelt initiative as a viable project the country should seriously pursue to turn the tables around.
Malawi’s headline inflation for June stands at 22.6 percent from 21.5 percent in May as reported by the National Statistical Office. Government is targeting to reduce the figure to 19.8 percent by the end of this year.
Leave a Reply