Commercial banks in the country have announced the upward revision of the reference rate from 13.4% to 13.5%, as the Bankers Association of Malawi (BAM) attributed the increment to a corresponding increase in Treasury Bill rates.

In July this year, the Worldbank said Malawi’s three-year trajectory of increasing economic growth has been interrupted by the global COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, but the full extent of the pandemic’s negative impact is still uncertain as the crisis unfolds, says the latest World Bank Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM). Likewise, commercial banks may increase interest rates amidst recovering from the pandemic, as the Reserve Bank of Malawi has called the banks, telecommunication companies and mobile money operators to extend moratorium on their services, to December this year.

While the development is in consideration of the pandemic and customers amidst the same, the banks are being crippled amidst the moratorium, hence an incoming interest rate boom.