Male’, Maldives – The Spokesperson at the President’s Office, Mohamed Mabrook Azeez informed that the incumbent government is planning to bring several massive changes in order to lower the price of dollars in Maldives.
The statement from Mabrook comes after he was questioned whether the government has plans to de-dollarize the economy while he was speaking at a virtual press conference held on Wednesday.
Mabrook avoided going into details regarding the question and answered that the government’s thinking is to introduce a structural reform to reduce the amount of shocks the economy of Maldives receives. He further informed that the de-dollarization is one of the mechanism to complete that task and that research is currently ongoing to make it possible.
Mabrook stated that details regarding this matter would be revealed at a later time. However, he noted that massive changes need to be brought to the country and that they would begin the work within this year.
Dollars have always been an unsolved issue in Maldives. The issue of purchasing dollars from the black market; the high cost and the difficulties in the purchase process
Mabrook stated.
Earlier on October, the Governor of the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Ali Hashim has said that the central bank is preparing to allow additional currencies to be used for import transactions other than the American Dollar. He detailed that they are considering to lower the demand for the American dollar.
The Deputy governor of MMA, Ahmed Imad told that once MMA establishes a mechanism by which local currency can be used to acquire products from another jurisdictions, the demand for USD will drop.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a huge demand for the American dollars which has caused the black market price of USD to increase significantly. MMA has injected a total of USD 521 million so far through lending to the banks operating in the country.
