Policy Briefs

The bank rate(the rate at which commercial banks borrow from the central bank) is one of the main instruments used by the Reserve Bank of Malawi to implement monetary policy. The rate was last reduced in November 2007, from 17.5 percent to 15 percent and was maintained at that level until 1st August 2010 when it was further cut down to 13%. However, commercial banks’ prime lending rates and average savings rate remained at 19.6 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively. According to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi-RBM, Dr.

This paper discusses the role of the financial system in economic development by assessing the development and efficiency factors of capital markets in Malawi. Popiel and Stiglitz (2002) have

The Malawi Government announced plans to broaden tax base in its fiscal budget for 2010/11. This move is welcome as it will ensure more revenue collection to finance government operations. Malawi’s fiscal budget is financed by tax and non tax revenue and supplemented by domestic and external loans.

Transforming the country from an importing and consuming nation into a producing andexporting one has been the main stem of the country’s national development plan, the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS). Whether the implementation of the MGDS over the past 5 years has achieved this, is a very big question that the researchers will have to answer. It is generally appreciated that when a country is exporting more than it is importing that it would be self sustaining.