IMF DELEGATES TO ARRIVE IN THE COUNTRY NEXT WEEK

The ruling Democratic progressive Party (DPP) regime is set to go through another litmus test next week following the arrival of International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials to assess Malawi’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF).

IMF declared Malawi’s ECF off track last year citing government heavy borrowing, high inflation rate and mismanagement of funds at Capitol Hill.

According to information at hand, the next week meeting between IMF and Minister of Finance will have a huge impact on the country’s economy because its where IMF will decided whether to resume its aid through ECF or not.

Speaking in an interview with the press, Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe expressed hope that the delegates will be pleased with the measures the government have taken.

“As at 20 June, 2015, we had a debt hovering around K78 billion, but now we have brought it down to K8.4 billion although the IMF allowed us to borrow up to K58 billion. We are doing extremely well in this area which was a matter of their concern,” he said.

According to Gondwe, Malawi Government has all the confidence this time around as it has only borrowed K4.3 billion out of the similar margin in the first half of the 2016-2017 Financial year.

The IMF team is expected on March 9.