MW’s Economy Signals Improvements; Official Reserves Months Import cover Rises to 3.38, Private Foreign Reserve at 1.7 The Malawi Government boasts that sound economic policies and government strategic thinking as spearheaded by President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has resulted into the current “tremendous” improvement in the official and private foreign reserves. Minister of Information Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa said in a statement Malawi has yet again registered another improvement on official and private foreign reserves translating into greater import cover “as never seen before” in the country’s history. This follows the rising of official foreign reserves to USD646.26 million as of Wednesday 14th January 2015. The rise translates into an import cover of 3.38 months and the private sector official foreign reserves are at USD325.94 million translating into an import cover of 1.71 months. “Cumulatively, it means the country has a total of USD972.16 million in foreign reserves translating into an import cover of 5.1 months.” indicated Nankhumwa According to Reserve Bank of Malawi Financial Market Developments statistics on Wednesday, Gross Official Reserves increased during the week ending 9th January 2015 compared to the preceding week. The Gross Official Reserves stood at US$607.95 million (3.18 months of imports) as at 9th January, 2015 compared to US$606.19 million (3.17 months of imports) recorded on 2nd January, 2015. The Gross Official Reserves went up further and stood at US$646.22 million (3.38 months of imports) as at Monday, 12th January, 2015. The current private sector foreign exchange reserve import cover of $325.94 translating to 1.71 month is a decline from week ending 9th January, 2015 where it rose to $338.09 translating to 1.77 months an increase from 2nd January, 2015 at $314.49 translating to 1.65 months import cover. But as of Wednesday Kwacha has continued to appreciate against the USD trading at around MK462.5711 on Wednesday from around 466.5601 on Tuesday. RBM statistics indicates Private Sector Foreign Exchange Reserves (Foreign reserves under the direct control of authrozed dealer banks (ADBs) which consists of ADBs own forex positions and foreign currency denominated accounts balances of their clients) ADBs sales to the market at US$48.88 million surpassed corresponding purchases by US$7.55 million during the week ending 9th January 2015. ADBs bought US$6.27 million from the market against sales of US$5.54 million Tuesday. “It is worth pointing out that this has never happened before in Malawi’s history. It is the first time for the country to hit such levels of reserves and import cover even at the highest periods of good economic growth.” Said Nankhumwa The Minister has assured Malawians that government will continue on the path withstanding all the challenges to make Malawi a middle income country. “In the same vein, government wishes to appeal to every one of us to use these foreign reserves prudently, focusing only on those activities that will help grow the reserves, while we all rally behind the leadership of His Excellency the State President Professor Peter Mutharika to push further the agenda of shifting the direction of the country into better days.” He said
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:05:42 +0000
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