By Kingsley Jassi:
The country’s trade performance peaked in January when total exports grew by 221.7 percent, raking in $124.2 million, a good start the country needs on its course to healing the ailing economy.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) released the trade update on Tuesday, when it indicated that this was a sharp increase from $39.4 million in January last year.
“As exports grew at a faster rate than imports, the trade deficit narrowed to $146.8 million in January 2025, down by 20.5 percent from $184.7 million in January 2024,” the NSO update said.
On the other hand, total imports increased from $224.2 million in January 2024 to $273.5 million in January 2025. This reflected a 22.0 percent increase.
This means the export-to-import ratio was 0.46, indicating an equivalent of 46 percent of the value of imports in January 2025.
However, diving deeper into the statistics, they show that tobacco continues to strengthen its export dominance, taking 78 percent of the total value in the month.
“In January 2025, the main export commodities were tobacco, valued at $45.2 million (78.0 percent), followed by tea at $5.5 million (9.6 percent) and pulses at $2.0 million (5.6 percent),” the report says.
Main imports in the year were fertiliser, fuel, pharmaceuticals and nuclear reactors, among others.
Meanwhile, trade expert Fredrick Changaya has said the country’s focus on primary production in agriculture is not transformative and cannot drive industrialisation, stressing that commodity exports limit economic benefits.
He urged policyholders to use industry to drive agriculture as that would create demand to drive agricultural production.
“No economy has ever developed through exportation of commodities. That’s mastering the status of poverty. If we are to transform this economy, we need to desist from exporting commodities; we should invest in industry and supply it with the commodities to export high-value goods,” Changaya said.
Meanwhile, this year, the World Bank’s Malawi Economic Monitor projects exports to increase to $1.79 billion while imports are expected to surge to $4 billion.
In 2024, the report shows that total exports were $1.4 billion from $1.56 billion while imports were recorded at $3.58 billion, dropping from $3.9 billion in 2023, leaving the trade deficit at $2.16 billion.
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