One year after President Peter Mutharika returned to power inheriting a severely distressed economy, Malawi is showing early signs of macroeconomic stabilisation, though broad-based recovery remains elusive.<\/p>\n
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In October 2025, the incoming administration faced acute fuel shortages, persistent power cuts, water scarcity, double-digit inflation, and mounting public debt compounded by severe drought. Twelve months on, independent economic assessments paint a mixed picture.<\/p>\n
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Speaking on Africa Update, Dr Bertha Bangara Chikadza, Senior Lecturer in Macroeconomics at the University of Malawi, noted that while headline inflation remains elevated above 20%, food inflation has seen a notable drop from 35% down to 20.4%. The decline has brought tangible relief to ordinary households and rural communities through lower staple food prices.<\/p>\n
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However, the broader economy remains under heavy strain. High non-food inflation, persistent foreign exchange shortages, and heavy public debt continue to disrupt basic services and business operations. A lack of foreign currency has restricted fuel imports and prevented manufacturers from securing raw materials, leaving many local companies operating at just 75% capacity.<\/p>\n
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On the fiscal front, government efforts to reduce domestic borrowing have helped narrow the budget deficit from 11% to around 8%. Nevertheless, economic growth for the year has been revised down to 2.6% due to El Ni\u00f1o-induced agricultural disruptions.<\/p>\n
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Chikadza points out that securing lasting stability over the next year will require urgent interventions to resolve the foreign exchange crunch, support the agricultural sector, and provide a sustainable foundation for debt restructuring and fiscal consolidation.<\/p>\n
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–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31712,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-47267","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Malawi reflects on Mutharika\u2019s first year as reforms deliver uneven progress","published_date":"2026-10-05 14:15:09","news_description":"Malawi reflects on Mutharika\u2019s first year as reforms deliver uneven progress","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47268,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47267\/revisions\/47268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}