The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Joseph Mwanamvekha has projected the 2020/2021 Budget at over MK2 trillion representing 28.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mwanamvekha made the statement today at Parliament in Lilongwe during his presentation of the 2020/2021 Budget Statement.

Minister has allocated K29 billion for the fresh presidential election. He indicated that discussions with donors on the financing of the elections have proved futile as most donors have expressed their inability to support this election.

On women and youth empowerment, the Minister said Government has increased the loan allocation to the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund to K15 billion.

Out of this, K2 billion will be dedicated to be accessed by women and youth who have been directly affected by COVID-19.

On Education and Skills Development, the Minister said the sector has been allocated the largest portion of the budget amounting to MK387.9 billion which he said is representing 19.2 percent of the total budget.

“The Health Sector ranks second with a projected allocation of MK195.3 billion, representing 9.7 percent of the total budge, ” said Mwanamvekha.

Delivering the Statement, Mwanamvekha expressed concern over rising public debt which he said remains a major concern to the Government.

“As much as Government would have waned to reduce public debt, this was not possible during the 2019/2020 fiscal year and will likely remain unattainable during the 2020/2021 fiscal year due to the economic downturn and the resultant decline in domestic revenues,” said the Minister.

Concluding the statement, the Finance Minister said the financial year 2020/2021 budget seeks to speed up economic recovery, infrastructure development and economic empowerment for the vast majority of our people, including the youth, women and physically challenged.

Mwanamvekha said the 2020/2021 budget further aims to ride on the macroeconomic stability so far achieved during the past three fiscal years and build a resilient economy capable of withstanding unforeseen shocks.

Parliament will go into Cluster Committees to scrutinize the 2020/2021 budget from Monday, 15th June to Friday, 19th June, 2020.

Opposition Spokesperson on Finance and Chairperson of the Budget Committee will respond to the budget from Monday, 22nd June to Friday, 19th June, 2020.

This will be followed by general debate which will be curtailed on Thursday, 25th June and immediately, thereafter, the House will go into Committee of Supply up to Tuesday, 29th June, 2020.

The 2020/21 Budget  is expected to be passed in Parliament  by Monday, 30th of June, 2020.

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha will present the the 2020/2021 national budget in Parliament this Friday, June 12.

Mwanamvekha has  hinted that the main focus of the country’s financial plan  is to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic while also speeding up economic recovery and building up resilience against external shocks.

Treasury has said  that the country’s purse keeper  will present and lay before Parliamment  the budget statement  at 9.30am.

“However due to Covid-19 pandemic mitigation measurers the Honourable Minster has not made any invitations to the Budget Presentation and urges all stakeholders  and the general  public to listen to the budget statement presentation through the radios, television and online broadcasting,” said the statement.

The budget statement will also be made available on Ministry of Finance website www.finance.gov.mw soon after presentation.

The government  has since lowered its economic growth forecast for 2020 to 1.9 percent, Covid-19 which has taken its toll on growth sector.

But the projection is  still 0.9 percentage points above the International Monetary Fund (IMF) real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast for Malawi for 2020 of one percent.

President Peter Mutharika in his pre-recorded State-of-the-Nation (Sona) address at Parliament last Friday explained that his government still managed to achieve the 2019 targeted 5 percent of economic growth, an improvement from the 3.9 percent real GDP growth registered in 2018.

However, Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament chairperson Sosten Gwengwe  has painted a gloomy picture, saying with Covid-19 crisis, the country is heading into a recession come September or December.

A recession is a period of economic decline during which trade and industrial activity shrinks and is generally manifested by a fall in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in two successive quarters.

Parliament will meet up to July 24 for the Budget Meeting