World Bank Country Representative, Bellah Bird, described Malawi’s economic growth as volatile, considering that the country has faced repeated shocks from natural disasters such as floods and droughts.

She also attributed economic mismanagement as cause for volatility. “If you look at Malawi’s growth path over a couple of decades, it is characterised by quite volatile growth, some periods of quite good growth of around five percent, and then repeated shocks. It is not only shocks that come from natural phenomenon or whether events, it’s also the way the economy is managed and if there is any mismanagement of the economy and combined with shocks the impact can really be worse,” she said.”

Contrary to World Bank’s observation, Mutharika described the country’s economic trajectory as progressive, citing the reduced inflation and interest rates as some key indicators. Regardless, the natural disasters like floods and droughts, that the World Bank has factored to Malawi’s volatility, are issues that affect Agriculture, which the World Bank criticised Malawi for being overly dependent on Agriculture on.

Earlier this year, the Bretton Woods institutions said that Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world, because it is overly dependent on agriculture. As a result, weather related constraints curb agricultural progress and the economy altogether, hence Malawi needs to diversify its income streams.