{"id":9906,"date":"2023-11-16T16:09:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T16:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=9906"},"modified":"2023-11-16T16:09:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T16:09:23","slug":"malawis-president-bans-himself-and-cabinet-from-foreign-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/9906\/malawis-president-bans-himself-and-cabinet-from-foreign-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi’s President bans himself and cabinet from foreign travel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has suspended with immediate effect all international travel for himself and his government in a bid to save money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The measure follows a huge devaluation of the currency as Malawi secures a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost its ailing economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Chakwera has also ordered all ministers currently abroad to return home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Fuel allowances for senior government officials have been cut by 50%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Malawi’s economy has been undergoing turbulent times, characterised by an acute shortage of petrol and diesel, as well as high inflation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a televised address, Mr Chakwera said the measures would remain in place until the end of the financial year in March 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some similar austerity measures were announced during the Covid-19 pandemic but had limited impact as they were not strictly enforced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As part of moves to ease the cost-of-living crisis, the president has asked the finance minister to make provisions for a reasonable wage increase for all civil servants in the next budget review.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He has also ordered a lowering of income tax on individuals in the upcoming budget, to help workers whose incomes have lost value.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The IMF has approved a four-year credit facility worth $174m (\u00a3140m),\u00a0just days after Malawi’s central bank announced the devaluation of the kwacha by 44%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Analysts suggest the devaluation may have been a condition for securing the IMF credit facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some fear the currency devaluation will only raise prices and potentially worsen Malawians financial woes,\u00a0as happened a decade ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Officials have blamed the economic downturn on external factors, such as a devastating cyclone earlier this year and the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has suspended with immediate effect all international travel for himself and his government in a bid to save money. The measure follows a huge devaluation of the currency as Malawi secures a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost its ailing economy. Mr Chakwera has also ordered all ministers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"BBC","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,30],"tags":[1163,273,274],"class_list":["post-9906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-southern-africa","tag-international-monetary-fund-imf","tag-lazarus-chakwera","tag-malawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}