Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor, Charles Chuka, has downplayed the impact of Malawi getting off-track on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, saying all is well in Malawi and that there is no crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not run out of fuel because the IMF programme targets were missed,\u201d said Chuka, writing on his Facebook page on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, meeting the IMF targets in coming months will not mean cutting on social expenditures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said maintenance of a flexible exchange rate has helped to build resilience in the<\/p>\n
economy.<\/p>\n
The Central Bank Chief took a swipe at the media for what he calls \u201csensationalization\u201d of the issue, saying it is \u201cdisheartening how Malawians trash their own country for the world to see\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is sad that the stories are deliberately biased and self-serving. Because they are based on half truths. The stories are not in our national interest but to create undue panic,\u201d said Chuka.<\/p>\n
He explained that Malawi missed the domestic borrowing limit largely because of major shocks it has suffered which have put pressure on budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn such circumstances, cutting the budget is no child\u2019s play,\u201d said Chuka.<\/p>\n
He said it is in recognition of the realities on the ground that the\u00a0IMF has given Malawi more time to achieve the programme targets. \u201cThus, all is not lost. Not yet,\u201d said Chuka.<\/p>\n
He said it is also short-sightedness and indeed self-serving to sensationalize the impact of missing the IMF target, saying loans obtained from IMF do not directly fund budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are balance of payments support to RBM,\u201d said Chuka.<\/p>\n
He said it is the donor budget support triggered by a successful implementation of an IMF-supported economic programme, that increases financing of the budget.<\/p>\n
He said, however, apart from the African Development Bank (AfDB), not much budget support came when Malawi met IMF targets in April this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe country has survived since October 2013 without much budget support. Moreover, the country has sustained reasonable level of reserves throughout the period. Forex is still available in the market despite the very short periods of temporary shortages, some of that deliberately engineered by importers,\u201d said Chuka.<\/p>\n
He also said the impact of reduced tobacco inflows into the country has been exaggerated, saying tobacco auction proceeds provide forex of less than two months of import cover.<\/p>\n
He said donor and forex inflows to non-governmental organisations provide another two months of imports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThus the bulk of our forex needs comes from other non-tobacco exports,\u201d said Chuka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor, Charles Chuka, has downplayed the impact of Malawi getting off-track on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, saying all is well in Malawi and that there is no crisis. \u201cWe will not run out of fuel because the IMF programme targets were missed,\u201d said Chuka, writing on his Facebook […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9757","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=9757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9762,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9757\/revisions\/9762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}