Dollar black market shows signs of weakness: Saeed

The Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mohamed Saeed has said the US dollar black market exchange has started to weaken.

Saeed made the remarks at a press conference held at the President’s Office on Monday, April 22^nd.

At the press briefing, Saeed said businesses had exchanged USD 150 million (MVR 2.3 billion) to local commercial banks from January to March 2025, which he highlighted was a significant improvement in regulated currency exchange.

While corroborating an earlier statement from President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu on a podcast, Saeed said that regulated currency exchange has increased 40 percent.

“We have begun seeing early signs of weakening black market exchange of the US dollar in light of new MMA regulations,” Saeed said.

The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) announced and implemented the new foreign currency regulation in October last year, which mandates tourist resorts to exchange USD 500 per tourist and guesthouses to exchange USD 25 per tourist at local commercial banks.

The government seeking to implement the new foreign exchange regulation, had sent a bill to the parliament on December 9, 2025. While the regulation mandated an exchange of USD 500 per tourist from resorts, the legislation cited that besides this exchange, tourist resorts could opt to exchange 20 percent of its retained monthly revenue.

The legislation was passed by the parliament with a few legal relaxations, including the preference for tourist resorts with financial detriments to opt for an exchange below 20 percent of the retained monthly revenue, and added the preference of exchanging 20 percent of the retained monthly earnings from guesthouses besides the exchange of USD 25 per tourist.

After the parliament passed the bill on December 12, 2024, President Muizzu ratified the Act two days later.

While speaking on the “Rayyithunnaa Eku” podcast that air every Thursday, Muizzu said that the legal enforcement of dollar exchange at local banks had encouraged 95 percent of the businesses to follow suit.

He also noted the new MMA regulation aimed at boosting the Maldives tourism and drive up the industry’s revenue.

President Muizzu further said that adherence to the regulation would enhance outbound Maldivian travelers to acquire up to USD 1000 at bank rate from local commercial banks, facilitate increment of credit limits twice the current rates, and expand the opportunities for local businesses to make TT transactions.