Malawi will be hiking its fuel and electricity prices effective as from Friday after the central bank devalued the local currency by 30%, according to a report by the country’s energy regulatory authority.
The Reserve Bank of Malawi devalued the kwacha currency’s exchange rate to the dollar earlier in the week in a bid to bolster the diminishing foreign currency reserves.
The Malawian Energy Regulatory Authority had in a statement said that the price for petrol would increase to about 2,530 kwacha (apprx. $1.52) per litre from the former price of 1,746 kwacha per litre, while the diesel price has been increased to 2,734 kwacha per litre from 1,920 kwacha per litre.
The regulator had said that it was also applying an over 40% tariff increase on electricity as a result of the devaluation and high inflation.
The landlocked southern African country is one of the impoverished countries in the world and has been fighting severe medicine, fertilizer and fuel shortages as a result of the limited foreign currency supply, leading to long queues of motorists at fuel stations.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had in September announced that it had reached an agreement with Malawi for a new loan of about $174 million to aid the country recover from a series of shocks, including a destructive cyclone in March.
