Former President, Peter Mutharika said that he was not aware that figures presented to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor, Dalitso Kabambe were ‘cooked’.

Kabambe was arrested last week on allegations of providing false statistics about the state of the economy to the IMF.

Meanwhile, University of Malawi (UNIMA) Professor of Economics, Ben Kalua, told the media that presenting false figures to institutions like IMF and World Bank is detrimental.

“Rates indicate the wellbeing of the economy i.e. economic growth rates, interest rates, inflation rates, etc. Falsifying them is like burying your head in the sand and pretending that there is nothing wrong and you are not interested in finding solutions,” said Kalua.

Issues regarding misrepresentation of the real value of the kwacha also arose in 2012, when then-president Joyce Banda, accused her deceased predecessor, Bingu Wa Mutharika, of mis-presenting the value of the kwacha against the dollar. Banda then devalued the currency, which led to an increase in the prices of goods.