- February 16, 2024
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Current News
The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development of Malawi embarked on a project to compile and disseminate quarterly gross domestic product (quarterly GDP) in 2023. However, this agenda was impeded by a high degree of staff turnover, which resulted in massive recruitment of new staff in the national accounts department for the last two years. Against this background, MEFMI conducted a workshop for the Ministry, on quarterly GDP, from 29 May to 9 June 2023.
The objective of the workshop was to deepen the understanding of officials in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development of Malawi on the concepts, definitions, data sources and methods for compiling quarterly GDP by activity, expenditure and income approach using international best practices and techniques. The knowledge acquired from this training workshop will be used to enhance the availability of timely and comprehensive quarterly national statistics in Malawi in line with international standards, thus contributing to sound macroeconomic policies and the efficient functioning of financial markets.
The workshop was preceded by a courtesy call to the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development of Malawi, Mr. Patrick Zimpita. On behalf of the Ministry, he thanked MEFMI and mentioned that he was convinced that the participants would utilise the techniques learnt during the workshop. He also promised to be present for half a day during the workshop to observe attendance. He postulated that accurate and high-frequency quarterly GDP data is one of the most important tools for providing early warning signals on possible economic up-swings and down-swings as the world continues to grapple with many domestic and international shocks.
MEFMI trained ten (10) participants from the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development of Malawi. Of the 10 participants, six (6) of them (55 per cent) were male while nine (9) of them (45 percent) were female. The workshop was facilitated by two (2) resource persons, Mr. Senei Molapo, a MEFMI Graduate Fellow and MEFMI Programme Manager, as well as Ms Pamela Audi Magak, an independent Consultant and a national accounts Specialist who is also a former IMF employee on national accounts statistics.