The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) still aims to achieve its 5% inflation target by the first quarter of 2021, despite economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The central bank’s Governor, Dalitso Kabambe, outlined that the negative impacts of Covid-19 followed the country’s macro-economic stability characterised by low inflation and interest rates, stable exchange rate and also high accumulation of a foreign exchange currency buffer. However, Kabambe said a single digit inflation was achievable depending on maize prices.

On the other hand, Figures from the National Statistical Office (NSO) show that while headline inflation is up by 0.5 percentage points, Food inflation rate was seen at 14.7% compared to 17.6% in February, 2020.

The above has been attributed to an influx of maize in most traditional markets, following the harvesting season, which has contributed to a drop in prices on the market. On the other hand, Malawi is expected to produce about 3,691,866 metric tonnes of maize this season, up from 3,391,924 metric tonnes produced during the 2018/2019 season, representing an 8.8 percent increase.