The government has expressed confidence that the unusual decline infood priceswill hasten economic recovery and trigger interest rate reductions in the coming months. Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha drew confidence from recent maize price trends amid notable oversupply in the market. Mwanamvekha was speaking on Wednesday when he received a $1 million grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) at Capital Hill in Lilongwe City.
January usually marks the worst month for maize prices as stocks deplete, with consumers paying up to K110,000 per 50 kilogramme (kg) bag last year. “This year is a unique year. Normally, this time around, prices of food go up but you can see that the prices are going down.
I’m sure they will continue to go down and that causes inflation to go down. I’m hopeful that interest rates will start to go down as well,” Mwanamvekha said. With the inflation rate at 26 percent, as of December 2025, and the policy rate at 26 percent, the country’s productive sectors have been struggling to sustain operations, causing industry contraction over the years.
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On maize prices, the minister insisted that demand and supply forces should determine prices, saying the current food price drop signals increased supply needed to stabilise the economy. AfDB’s food support will assist relief efforts through the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma), which is currently grappling with a K71 billion financing gap. Dodma disclosed that it was running a food relief budget deficit of K71 billion out of the required K209 billion to reach food insecure households across the country.
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