Speaking on his arrival from Brussels Belgium, Malawi’s Minister of Finance Dr. Maxwell Mkwezalamba has assured the public that the escalating depreciation of the local kwacha currency will not continue saying the bank has in its reserves US$400 Million dollars which is enough to cover two months of imports at current levels.
For this reason Dr. Mkwezalamba expressed hope that the current depreciation of the local currency will soon reach its equilibrium.
Dr Mkwezalamba made the remarks following the continued weakening of the local currency (MWK) which lost an average of 6% to major trading world currencies in November 2013.
“This depreciation is due to investor’s speculation and I have the hope that the situation will soon come to normal.” Mkwezalamba said.
“This level of forex reserves is giving us hope, and we believe with the current austerity measures and reforms that we are carrying out in conjunction with the ministry of finance, the Malawi Kwacha will soon reach its equilibrium.” The finance minister said.
While in Brussels, Mkwezalamba tried to convince the donor community to resume funding Malawi as soon as possible after three weeks since they announced the budgetary support freeze since the cashgate scandal surfaced.
Among the donors that gave audience to the Malawi Ministry of Finance was the European Union which has since promised to give the country some money.