By Pickson Chipeso
Lilongwe, February 25, Mana: Stakeholders have put in place market price stabilization strategies as one way to reduce escalating prices of goods in the country.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Sosten Gwengwe, said at a media briefing in lilongwe on Monday a meeting with stakeholders to discuss measures of addressing the situation.
He said the meeting discussed non justified pricing in the country, issues surrounding the black market in order to consolidate strategies on how to arrest the situation.
“We have discussed with all the relevant stakeholders. We are almost there to announce and start implementing the measures,” he said.
The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor, Dr Macdonald Mafuta Mwale said black market is linked to devaluation of the Kwacha which is happening on the parallel market.
“The value of the dollar, which is official, is the value that we have to prescribe with. Anything out of that is speculative, opportunistic, and also greedy in nature because nobody with our income levels can be able to buy the dollar at K5,000; what we have is K1,750 as the value of the dollar in Malawi,” he said.
He said there are a number of issues presented to the ministers to arrest the black market, and also deal with escalation of price of goods.
The meeting attracted the officials from Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Justice, National Intelligence Service, Competition and Fair Trading Commission and RBM.
