The cost of basic items has markedly gone up over the past few months, but salaries of most workers are increasingly failing to keep pace with the cost of living, a social welfare monitoring body has said.
Malawians are digging deeper into their pockets to buy goods whose prices have shot up to the roof following the raft of tax measures introduced in the 2011/12 zero deficiet budget, the 10 percent devaluation of the Kwacha in August and now the over 26 percent hike in fuel pump price.
In its Basic Needs Basket (BNB) for October, the Centre for Social Concern (CFSC) says the price of maize (stapple food) has also gone up by 11.7 percent in the country’s four cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba.
The average cost of Maize in Chikwawa stood at K2,040 (US $12) in October compared with K 1,600 during the comparable period last year, representing a 22 percent increase.
“The fact that the stapple food is recording alarming price increase is indcative of hard times ahead. It also presupposes that low and medium income can expect largest fall in disposable incomes in the months to come and would better prepare for a squeeze in attempts to meet basic needs, the like of which many people might have never witnessed before.” says the religious grouping.
The CFSC also appealed the stakeholders and concern citizens that in these turbulent times it is important to remember that people are the source, centre, and purpose of all economic and social life and that the purpose of economic production is to serve people in their basic needs.
Meanwhile this author agrees with CFSC as bus fares have raisen almost doubled, there are no little supply of fuel, electricity and even water to households.
If you wake up early in the morning you you will notice women hovering up and down looking to fetch at joints where they have heard. Yesterday at 9 night my wife Efi had to leave home for water kiosk at a nearby neighbor to get the commodity up until 10 night.
LHM Malawi would like our partners in the Lord’s service to pray for this issue.
