Minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha has told Malawians that they must be ready to suffer now so that the economy can improve in the future.Speaking in Mzuzu during pre-budget talks, Mwanamvekha said the government will continue with tough economic measures under the National Economic Recovery Plan (NERP), even though life is already very hard for most people. When asked when prices will go down and life will become easier, the minister could not give a clear answer. Instead, he told Malawians to be patient and accept the pain.
“You need to suffer in a short while for good things to come in future,” he said. TheNational Economic Recovery Plan (NERP)is government’s programme to fix Malawi’s broken economy. Government says it will: The goal is to make Malawi’s economy stable and attractive to investors again.
But in the short term, it meanshigher prices, higher taxes and less government support for ordinary people. This means food, transport, rent and basic goods are all expensive, while salaries remain low. Even so, Mwanamvekha says government willnot reduce taxessuch asVAT, even though churches and civil society asked him to.
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“This is a bitter pill that Malawians must swallow,” he said. Mwanamvekha said government is under heavy financial pressure. More than90 percentof the money government collects is used to pay: Malawi now owesK22.4 trillion, with more than half borrowed locally.
This forces government to payK2.27 trillionjust in interest this year. This leaves very little money for development, hospitals, roads or councils.
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