The problems with the Malawian economy continue to deepen. Inflation continues to soar, to the extent that the team are having to curtail travel for literature distribution and other outreach purposes.
Please pray for a resolution to this problem, and for wisdom in the meantime.
There are constant commodity shortages. Even goods produced in-country (E.g. Sugar, cooking oil and coffee) are now in short supply, as supplies are being diverted for export to generate foreign currency. This has a huge inflationary impact.
At present the black market rate for the Malawi Kwacha is 2.5 times the official rate. This means that the value of each £ or $ brought into the country using the regular banking system is reduced by that amount, hugely inflating operating costs.
The government needs to allow the local currency to float to a more realistic level, but doing so would instantly increase the wage bill for the huge public sector, so it’s unlikely to happen soon. Meanwhile black marketeers push the unofficial rate higher and higher, affecting the price of everything in the store.