The Economics Association of Malawi (ECAMA) has welcomed plans by the Malawi Government to introduce a new K5, 000 bank note.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Goodall Gondwe announced on Monday that the soon to be introduced banknote will lift the burden of people carrying large sums of money.

Reacting to the development, ECAMA President, Henry Kachaje, said that the introduction of the banknote will help the country to save money which is spent on replacing the damaged banknotes.

“Having the bigger banknote is good as it will help to reduce transaction costs as mostly people struggle to carry a lot of cash,” he said.

Kachaje however said the government has made the decision late saying this was supposed to be done the time when the Reserve Bank of Malawi was introducing the K2, 000 banknote last year.

He said other well-developed economies already have more powerful banknotes as compared to Malawi.

“The European Union for example has a €500 banknote, which is about MK421, 000. UK’s largest banknote, £100 is worth MK95,000 while in the USA they have a $100 banknote which if we were to print ours to match that value, we would have to print a MK74,000 banknote,” said Kachaje.

Kachaje suggested that other than having a K5, 000 as its highest banknote, the country should already be thinking of having an even higher banknote.