Opposition happy with revised budget
Leader of Opposition and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera has said he is happy that government has acknowledged that the economy has experienced a dramatic downturn in the first half of the financial year and revised the budget downwards.
In his mid-year budget statement presented to Parliament yesterday, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe said that “our economy is still passing through turbulent times.”
Said Gondwe: “I regret that we have not yet established a stable macroeconomic environment in which low inflation and interest rates prevail, and where the variability of the exchange rate is narrow and predictable. In such a stable economic environment; investments that generate robust economic activity should be feasible.
has acknowledged problems
“A stable macroeconomic environment also provides conditions for the attainment of high quality economic growth rates that create the needed high levels of employment and which lead to discernible poverty reduction among both rural and urban populations.”
Reacting to the revised budget, Chakwera said it was significant to note that Gondwe had acknowledged the economic problems rocking the country.
“He has presented a four-point response to the problems which is to reduce figures for the rest of the fiscal year. There is not much that is new really, it is what they have been talking about,” he said.
Chakwera said the revised budget was a clear indication of the direction the economy would take unlike the “shifting of goal posts” that Gondwe has been presenting to the nation by claiming the economy would recover in a specific period of time.
“They tell us there is light at the end of the tunnel. I hope it is not an oncoming train. It remains to be seen if that truly happens because they have been making statements to this effect, not just today but in the past.
The opposition, however, remains skeptical of the measures which government plans to put in place to effect the revised budget.
Gondwe has committed to reduce travel, cut vehicle and fuel entitlements, but he did not indicate what percentages of these will be deducted from the budget. n
