Malawi drops on economic freedom
Malawi fell on economic freedom—a measure that includes property rights, control of government spending, monetary freedom and trade freedom.
In the report published this week by The Wall Street Journal and Washington’s think-tank The Heritage Foundation, Malawi was rated as unfree having scored 54.8, which is 0.6 points lower than last year, ranking 126 out of 178 economies. This ranking is lower than neighbouring Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
Regionally, Malawi is ranked on position 25 out of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa while its overall score is below the world average.
The think-tank said the country’s performance reflects a decline in property rights, control of government spending, monetary and trade freedom, outweighing gains in business and investment freedom and also freedom from corruption.
Ministry of Industry and Trade spokesperson Wiskes Nkombezi in an interview yesterday said government has recently implemented a number of reforms that could imrpove the situation.
“The reforms that we have implemented include the automation of land and business registries. We have also made reforms on business licensing and enacted the Personal Property Security Bill,” he said, adding that government has designated Malawi Investment Trade Centre (Mitc) as a one-stop investment hub.
