Malawi has sold gold from its international reserves and turned to external borrowing to ease worsening fuel shortages, officials said.
The move comes as foreign exchange pressures deepen, with fuel importers demanding cash payments amid tight liquidity conditions.
Information Minister Shadric Namalomba said the Iran war has intensified the country’s forex crunch, according to Nation Publications.
He said part of the gold stockpile held by the Reserve Bank of Malawi had been sold to raise urgently needed dollars.
About 30 million dollars from the gold sale was used to secure fuel deliveries at ports, he was quoted as saying.
The government is also seeking a 120 million dollar loan from Afreximbank, expected within a week, to stabilise fuel supplies.
Malawi’s central bank and Afreximbank did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the financing plan.
A senior official in Namalomba’s ministry said verification of the reported figures was still under way before a formal response.
Fuel shortages have repeatedly disrupted daily life in Malawi, a donor-dependent economy vulnerable to external shocks.
Long queues have returned at petrol stations, reviving a crisis that featured prominently in last year’s election campaign.
Although conditions briefly improved after President Peter Mutharika’s electoral victory in September, pressure has resurfaced sharply.
Authorities are also pursuing a new support programme with the International Monetary Fund to stabilise the broader economy.
The unfolding measures highlight Malawi’s fragile reserves as global geopolitical tensions ripple through commodity and currency markets.
