This study analysed the impact of foreign debt on economic growth in Malawi using time series. Data for the period 1975-2003 from the Reserve Bank of Malawi, the IMF and the National Statistical Office was regressed in basic time series analysis. The dependent variable was economic growth and independent variables included level of foreign debt as the main variable. Other variables considered are the inflation rate, exchange rate and the prime lending rate, private and public investment. The results show a statistically insignificant and negative relationship between foreign debt and economic growth for the case of Malawi. The country should strive to provide incentives to local manufacturers who would want to export rather than relying on borrowing for growth inducement. Of interest was the relationship between inflation and economic growth which was positive.

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This paper examines the effect of monetary policy decisions on stock markets in emerging economies particularly South Africa for the period 2000Q1 to 2016Q4. This is important as the monetary authorities would understand how their decisions may cause reactions to the stock market. Monetary policy directly shocks money supply and repo rate and indirectly GDP and inflation among many macroeconomic variables. A hypothesis that stock markets do not respond to monetary policy determinations is formulated and tested using a two-stage approach by employing first the vector error correction model to determine the long-run relationship of the variables and secondly GARCH (1, 2) model to determine the volatility. And the results suggest that about 5.2% variations in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) volatility are due to monetary policy shocks. Overall, there is a negative relationship between M2 and stock market volatility. However, there is a positive link between repo rate and JSE volatility, which is not economically preferable because variations in repo rate influence the aggregate demand of investment on securities. The study recommends that the Monetary Policy Committee an expansionary monetary policy of keeping the repo rate lower must be pursued in order to increase borrowing that makes the public to have money to make transactions in securities on the financial market.

This paper reports results of a study that aimed at analysing the energy choice behaviour of people in South Lunzu Township in Malawi. A Microeconometric approach was adopted on survey data collected by way of a questionnaire. Results of Multinomial logit model suggest that most socioeconomic variables under study were inelastic in influencing the probability for the outcomes to be used for purposes of cooking at the household level. Statistically, Age, income, and education of head of household together with household size were important factors influencing the choice of outcomes electricity, charcoal, firewood and LP gas for cooking purposes. The major recommendation of this study is that campaigns emphasising on the abilities of Renewable Energy be developed and disseminated. Also, an emphasis on Liquefied Petroleum Gas for purposes of cooking must be encouraged. These policies would ensure sustainable development by reducing reliance on biomass which is depleting at a faster rate than regeneration.

PurposeSound organisational governance does not occur naturally; it is a product of effective awareness. This study aims to examine the level of governance awareness among public hospitals' governance actors in Malawi.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses semi-structured interviews to collect data that are analysed thematically.FindingsThe study found that governance awareness among the actors was low. Although the majority of the actors displayed a broad perspective, they, however, failed to clearly affirm the nexus of the governing organs – hospital board (or its equivalent) and hospital management. Furthermore, most were not aware of the existence of the country's self-regulatory framework for organisational governance. A possible compounding factor to the low level of awareness is their educational background that hardly recognises organisational governance as an essential component of their professional identity.Originality/valueThis is the first study to explore in-depth governance awareness in the context of public hospitals in developing countries. It highlights the need to develop strategies for creating effective governance awareness amongst the actors, which is often overlooked when carrying governance reforms.