By Jon Herskovitz
LILONGWE (Reuters) – Malawi’s finance minister expects suspended
international aid to be restored under its new president, Joyce Banda, helping prop up a budget increasingly under strain
after the previous president picked fights with overseas donors.
Lilongwe April 7, 2012. Banda took over the running of the southern African nation on Saturday after the death of President
Bingu wa Mutharika, and fears of a succession struggle receded as state institutions backed the constitutional handover.
REUTERS/Mabvuto Banda
Finance Minister Ken Lipenga
also told Reuters on Monday that former President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died on Thursday of a heart attack, had blocked
plans called for by the International Monetary Fund to devalue the currency because he was worried the move would hurt the
poor.
Aid-dependent Malawi slid into economic crisis over the past year as Mutharika, a professorial but temperamental
former World Bank economist, squabbled with major western donors who then froze millions of dollars of assistance that had
traditionally bankrolled about 40 percent of the budget.
“I expect the resumption of aid will happen,” Lipenga
said.
Foreign diplomats showed their support for Banda by visiting her residence even before she had been officially
installed, but so far there have been no concrete signs the West is preparing to restart the flow of aid.
The finance
minister has not yet discussed economic policy with Banda since she became president but he thinks she will be able to
address some issues that raised red flags with donors including suppression of human rights and the media.
“The donors
were emphasising the concerns of the Malawi people,” he said.
Mutharika plunged the country into isolation last year
when he expelled the ambassador from former colonial master and biggest aid donor Britain, who said in a leaked diplomatic
cable Mutharika was autocratic and intolerant of criticism.