Maldives’ debt at 130% of GDP by end of Q1

Records released by Finance Ministry show Maldives’ debt stood at 130 percent of GDP by the end of the first quarter of the year.

According to the records, Maldives’ debt stood at MVR 86.3 billion by the end of March, this included MVR 44.4 billion in domestic debt and MVR 41.8 billion in external debt.

The total public and publicly guaranteed external debt stood at 63 percent of the GDP, while the total public and publicly guaranteed domestic debt stood at 67 percent of the GDP.

Maldives’ GDP stood at MVR 66.3 billion by the end of March, rising from MVR 57.9 billion by the end of last year.

Records show Maldives’ debt rising from MVR 48.6 billion by the end of 2018 to MVR 67.9 billion by the end of 2019, before rising to MVR 86.5 billion – which is attributed to loans taken by the government to cover COVID-19 related expenditure.

Overall debt at the end of Q1 this year shows only a slight drop from the end of last year.

In a press conference last week, Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer said the Maldivian economy is showing signs of slowly returning to pre-pandemic performance, but remains at risk.

Ameer said that the Maldivian economy is performing better than previously projected, and the growth this year is projected to be within the range of 13.5 percent to 34.1 percent.