Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has asserted that the claim made by former President Abdulla Yameen about having USD one billion in state reserves when the government transitioned in 2018 is an outright lie.

In a recent interview on RaajjeTV’s ‘Fashaairu’ morning talk show, Yameen claimed that when the government transitioned in 2018, there was USD 950 million in net reserves available for Solih to use, USD 150 million in the Sovereign Development Fund (SDF), and nearly USD 700-800 million in usable reserves in the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) treasury.

When questioned about the matter on Sunday’s ‘Fashaairu’ episode, Solih brushed off these claims and stressed that it was not appropriate for a former president of Maldives to make such false statements.

Solih pointed out that the amount in the reserves at that time would be clearly visible from MMA's records.

He went on to emphasize that there was only enough money in the reserves to cover two months of expenses.

The former president noted that there were rumors about USD one billion being in the reserves.

In addition to this, he stated that the amount of money in the SDF was nowhere near the figure Yameen had claimed.

Solih stated that when he came to power, there was MVR 1.9 billion in the SDF, and 130 million was in U.S. dollars. He added that by the end of his presidency, the SDF fund had increased by MVR 7.7 billion.