Our Minister of Finance has been singlehandedly aiming at 7percent growth which he has over the years claimed was just around the conner
On may May 18, 2017, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said Malawi’s economic growth was forecast at 7 percent this year from 5.1 percent in 2016, helped by a recovery in the agriculture sector, on Thursday.
By the end of the year, the Minister had lowered expectations but he was still upbeat about the country registering economic growth of over five percent despite acknowledging the possible threat to the same created by extended power outages.
On Malawi 21, 2018 Finance Minister, Goodall Gondwe, pronounced in the 2018/19 budget statement that GDP would grow 4.1 pct this year
In the letter of intent sent to the IMF on October 30th, 2018, Goodall Gondwe wrote: “Economic growth is expected to accelerate from just above 3 percent in 2018 to around 4 percent in 2019 and to 6-7 percent over the medium term.”
A few months later the 4 percent had morphed into 7 percent. On January 3, 2019, the Minister expressed hope that the economy would grow by at least seven percent in 2019. The economic growth will be propelled by the stability in “macroeconomic fundamentals” in 2018.
Why is the Minister obsessed with 7 percent? The reason is that only a 7 percent growth rate will make a dent in the immense poverty in Malawi. As the Minister stated on May 20th 2017: “There will be others who will be apprehensive about this objective and will be arguments as to why this objective is too ambitious. However, the target of growth of 7 percent per year is an ambition that is not based on complicated mathematical economics but it has to be attained if the aspirations of Malawians are to be satisfied”.
Anything less means poverty is growing. We haven’t come anywhere close to 7 percent during his current reign as Minister of Finance.
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