UDF officials have bashed government for plunging the country into the current economic crisis. Cassim Chilumpha, who happens to be in the camp of the party’s president Friday Jumbe, said it was a fallacy for those in power to be claiming that the economy is vibrant when the country is facing high inflation, soaring unemployment and many people living in grinding poverty.

Chilumpha continued by cautioning government to stop publishing fake economic statistics when the ugly faces of poverty and financial hardships on ground mock the official figures.

He also queried the logic behind having an economy with low inflation rate yet its people are living in abject poverty and the prices of goods and services continue to rise. “The economy can be said to be doing well only when the people have money in their pockets or bank accounts and companies are hiring people and not firing them. As long as Malawians have no money and companies continue to close shops or downsize, let’s not cheat ourselves that our economy is doing well,” he continued.