Maldives' total foreign reserves drop to USD 395.4m

Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has revealed that the island nation’s total foreign reserves have taken a significant plunge, falling to USD 395.4 million by the end of July 2024.

According to the economic update for August 2024, publicized by the central bank, this represents a substantial decline compared to the USD 509.2 million recorded by June this year and the USD 594 million in July 2023.

MMA went on to note that this is a 33 percent drop in comparison to the previous year.

According to MMA, in March 2024, the total revenue of Maldives excluding grants, increased by 20 percent in comparison to March 2023.

This increase in revenue was mainly due to the rise of MVR 671.1 million in tax revenue.

Further, MMA revealed that non-tax revenue declined by MVR 117.1 million and the government's recurrent expenditure has increased by six percent.

MMA’s figures also show that capital expenditure has dropped by MVR 444.5 million.

It is to be noted that several development projects that were ongoing in multiple regions of the island nation, have been suspended or halted by the incumbent administration of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.

In addition to this, MMA’s statistics revealed that the government’s debt remains a concerning issue.

As such, by the end of the first quarter of 2024, the total government debt excluding government-guaranteed debt, stood at MVR 112.2 billion.

The central bank revealed that from the beginning of the year until July’s end, total exports had declined by eight percent, with the total imports increasing by four percent.

MMA cited the main reason for the decline in exports, being the drop in the exports of locally produced goods.

The central bank specifically highlighted the reduction in exports of frozen skipjack tuna and canned or pouched fish, as a reason.