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Joyce Banda, the Malawian President, has slashed her salary by 30 per cent to share in the "difficult times" suffered by her countrymen since she dramatically devalued the currency. The pay cut will see Mrs Banda's salary drop from a reported �37,000 a year to �26,000, while her vice president will see a similar reduction. Inflation in Malawi reached 25 per cent in August following the May devaluation of the Kwacha by a third, leaving even the previously affluent now struggling to pay for basics such as fuel, bread and sugar. "I told Malawians we needed to pass through difficult times," the 62-year-old head of state told South Africa's Business Day during a visit to Johannesburg this week. "I even cut my own salary by 30 per cent to show we are making sacrifices. "It is a very low salary, but most Malawians are getting just as little as that. So that's fine, we have a nation to build. Perhaps the next president will get better than that." The move comes just months after Mrs Banda announced that she would sell off the presidential jet and fleet of luxury cars accumulated by her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office in April this year. It will be lauded by foreign donors, who provide 40 per cent of Malawi's development budget.