By Deogratias Mmana:
Afro barometer’s round nine survey has revealed that the majority of Malawians are unhappy with the way the government is managing the economy.
According to the report, most Malawians have expressed pessimism about the direction the country has taken.
However, some people were optimistic that the situation would improve.
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The report, which has just been released, was produced by Centre for Social Research led by Joseph Chunga.
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It says most citizens (82 percent) say that the country’s economic conditions have deteriorated over the past 12 months.
For most Malawians, the most frequent unmet need is a cash income, with more than nine in 10 Malawians (93 percent) saying they went without an income at least once during the previous year.
However, 63 percent said this happened “many times” or “always”.
“As majorities of citizens continue to experience shortages of basic life necessities, economic concerns take centre stage as their top priority for government action,” the report reads.
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The report indicates that nearly nine out of 10 Malawians (89 percent) say that the country is heading in the wrong direction.
“Large majorities offer negative assessments of economic conditions: 85 percent describe the country’s economic situation as ‘fairly bad’ or ‘very bad’ and 74 percent say the same about their personal living conditions,” the report reads.
The report says only 16 percent of Malawians think that things will get better in the next 12 months while 63 percent expect them to get worse.
It further says almost four in 10 Malawians (37 percent) experienced high levels of lived poverty during the past year while another 38 percent experienced moderate lived poverty.
Management of the economy tops the list of most important problems that Malawians want their government to address.
The report says negative assessments of the country’s economic condition and personal living conditions are widespread across key demographic groups.
It says younger citizens are less likely than their elders to see their personal living conditions as bad but are just as likely to describe the national economy in negative terms.
According to the report, only four percent of citizens were free of lived poverty— meaning that they suffered no shortages of five basic necessities which include cash income, food, medical care, cooking oil
