{"id":75770,"date":"2019-03-19T03:28:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T01:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=75770"},"modified":"2019-03-19T03:28:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T01:28:11","slug":"trade-deficit-scares-mitc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/03\/19\/trade-deficit-scares-mitc\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade deficit scares MITC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By William Kumwembe: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/clement-kumbemba.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-54331\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/clement-kumbemba-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/clement-kumbemba-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/clement-kumbemba-45x35.jpg 45w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/clement-kumbemba.jpg 466w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Local manufacturers have been urged to intensify efforts towards increasing productivity and lowering trade deficit which continues widening.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi continues suffering from a negative trade balance due to insatiable appetite for foreign goods and continued reliance on imported inputs for production.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Reserve Bank of Malawi\u2019s 2018 third quarter economic report, Malawi\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/trade-balance-continues-to-worsen-mccci\/\">trade balance<\/a> worsened in the third quarter (Q3) of 2018 as imports growth outpaced exports.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi\u2019s trade balance worsened to minus $525.1 million from a deficit of $419.6 million in Q2. The position was higher than a deficit of $372.3 million recorded in Q3 of 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi, relatively undersized when compared to neighbours Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique, is, ironically, the destination of a thousand-plus products.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking when opening a day-long industrial workshop in Blantyre, Malawi Investment Trade Centre (MITC) Chief Executive Officer, Clement Kumbemba, said manufacturers should take a leading role to improve the country\u2019s export base.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cIt is only the manufacturing sector that predominantly can reverse this trend,\u201d<\/em> Kumbemba said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Kumbemba, however, conceded that businesses in the country are still going through turbulent times.<\/p>\n<p>He cited effects of high transport costs, scarcity of land for investment, inadequate power, and irrational administrative processes among major challenges facing the industry.<\/p>\n<p>One of the participants, Mapeto David Whitehead Malawi General Manager, Martin Mpata, said smuggling of products into the country was also rampant, affecting the local industry.<\/p>\n<p>He also lamented tax evasion practices by some players which, he said, was stifling the economic growth prospects.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi\u2019s main exports remain raw tobacco, sugar and tea.<\/p>\n<p>The main export destinations include the European Union (EU), Zimbabwe and Mozambique while the majority of the imports are from South Africa, the EU and China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By William Kumwembe: Local manufacturers have been urged to intensify efforts towards increasing productivity and lowering trade deficit which continues widening. Malawi continues suffering from a negative trade balance due to insatiable appetite for foreign goods and continued reliance on imported inputs for production. According to the Reserve Bank of Malawi\u2019s 2018 third quarter economic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75775,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75770\/revisions\/75775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}