President Bingu Wa Mutharika

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has charged the World Bank and the IMF with causing foreign exchange shortages by forcing the country to liberalise the economy, state media said on Thursday. "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have been forcing us to have a free market economy...but now all foreign business operators externalise forex to Asia and the Middle East," Mutharika said on public radio. The two lending institutions are the major sponsors of Malawi's economic reforms. "The forex is ours, but there is no money at the moment. Right now we cannot import anything. How do I run this country? The ... Read Full Story

BLANTYRE (AFP) -- Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has charged the World Bank and the IMF with causing foreign exchange shortages by forcing the country to liberalise the economy, state media said on Thursday. "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have been forcing us to have a free market economy...but now all foreign business operators externalise forex to Asia and the Middle East," Mutharika said on public radio. The two lending institutions are the major sponsors of Malawi's economic reforms. "The forex is ours, but there is no money at the moment. Right now we cannot import anything. How do I run ... Read Full Story

BLANTYRE, November 26, 2009 (MalawiPolitics)--Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika is furious at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and blamed them for their policies which he says have led to an acute shortage of foreign exchange in the poor southern African country. "It makes me mad. It makes me angry. In future I will put stringent measures. I don't care who says what, I am fed up," Mutharika was quoted by state radio Thursday as saying. Read Full Story

BLANTYRE, November 24, 2009--Globe-trotting Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika is staying home and will not attend the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago to "promote prudent use of public resources," his office announced Tuesday. Read Full Story

Two Malawian opposition leaders have been sentenced to 20 months in prison for sedition and inciting violence ahead of the May elections, a court official said on Tuesday. The convictions in Zomba, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the commercial capital Blantyre, mark the first time that Malawi's courts have handed down a sedition conviction since 1993. Hophmally Makande of the United Democratic Front, led by ex-president Bakili Muluzi, told a rally in March that the party would take "the law into its own hands" if the former leader was barred was running in the elections. Kamlepo Kalua, who leads the small Malawi Democratic ... Read Full Story