The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is ready to discuss working with Malawi to try to get its stalled IMF programme back on track, the fund’s vice-president for Africa Antoinette Sayeh said on Wednesday.
The IMF had approved a 3-year $79.4-million facility for the small Southern African state in February last year but the programme was hit by the government’s initial failure to devalue the Malawian kwacha and implement public finance management reforms, among other issues.
Malawi, which subsequently devalued the kwacha currency in August, has relied heavily on foreign donor funds. But former colonial ruler Britain, its biggest bilateral donor, suspended aid worth $550-million in May over a diplomatic spat.
Malawian officials have said the country will seek to renegotiate frozen aid at the meetings in Washington this week of the IMF and the World Bank.
Sayeh said the fund would be holding discussions with the Malawian delegation about the stalled IMF programme.
“The programme went off track … in a significant way and we certainly want to be helpful to Malawi in trying to get them to return it to track,” she said.
President Bingu wa Mutharika has faced street riots by protestors who accuse him of ignoring civil liberties and damaging the economy, and 20 anti-government demonstrators were killed by security forces during protests in July.
Sayeh said the IMF was ready to listen to proposals from the Malawian government.
“The situation has certainly deteriorated in a big way and Malawi also has a lot of work to do in restoring its relationships with key donors, which is an important task,” she said.
But she said it was too early to give further details of the discussions. “It’s quite early days, they’ve just arrived and we’re just starting to talk to them,” Sayeh said.
“Malawi of course had in the past made very good progress … We certainly want to help them to continue to make that progress,” she added. — Reuters