India to be biggest source of grant assistance to Maldives in 2020

Neighboring India is listed as the biggest source of grant assistance to the Maldives on the proposed state budget for 2020.

The Maldivian government projects it will receive MVR 46.26 million in grant assistance from India in the coming year.

The Indian government has also announced it will convert its investment on MVR 150 million in government securities to grant assistance.

The Maldivian government projects it will secure total MVR 4.68 billion in grant assistance from bilateral partners in 2020.

The biggest source of grant assistance, after India, is listed as Japan with MVR 21.5 million.

While both UAE and Saudi Arabia had awarded significant grant assistance to Maldives over the past couple of years, neither of the countries are listed as a source of grant assistance for Maldives on the 2020 budget.

Meanwhile, the biggest source of grant assistance in terms of financial institutes is listed as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with MVR 237.53 million – almost half the total MVR 548.43 million the Maldivian government projects to receive as grant assistance from financial institutions in 2020.

The proposed state budget 2020 is MVR 37.50 billion. The projected income and financial grants is MVR 29.92 billion – meaning a deficit of MVR 5.68 billion, which the Maldivian government plans to cover by selling sell USD 300 million in bonds.