Male’, Maldives – The Finance Ministry of Maldives has decided to submit a revised budget for approval, when the Parliament of Maldives reconvenes after the term break.
Revealing the details, the Ministry stated that the revised budget will include adjustments made to the budget passed by the Parliament in 2019, of the forecasts made for 2020. It was also stated that the reason for this is due to the downfall of the economy caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the government moves to revise the annual budget, currently the country’s debt stands at MVR 73.9 billion. According to the Ministry’s statistics published in June, the government has an internal debt of MVR 36 billion, with an external debt of MVR 37.7 billion as well as MVR 16.6 billion in debt as guarantee. This totals to a 108 percent of the country’s GDP.
With the economic crisis faced by the country due to Covid-19, the Maldivian government has sought many sources of free aid, as well as loans from 12 different parties. However, Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer reassures that debts would not increase to the point where Maldives is unable to repay back the loans.
