Thursday
25th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer.
The statements made by Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer at Majlis; regarding the analysis of the debt incurred by the Solih administration; further supports the position that the Solih administration has taken on a record high amount of debt.
Finance Minister Ameer said that the former President Yameen had, in his five year term, taken on a debt of MVR 39.6 billion through borrowing and sovereign guarantees.
Minister Ameer said, that in comparison, the Solih administration has only taken on MVR 34 billion as debt.
However, it is worth noting that, as per the Minister, the Solih administration took three years to take on 85% of the value of total debt incurred by the previous administration.
In addition, as per the budget prepared under the Finance Minister’s supervision, the national debt would balloon to MVR 107.5 billion, through borrowing and sovereign guarantees, by the end of the Solih administration. As the national debt was MVR 60.3 billion when he took power, it is estimated that the Solih administratiln would borrow MVR 47.1 billion.
As per this year’s budget, the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) is set to receive MVR29.2 billion. The Yameen administration had spent MVR24.9 billion on PSIP, giving President Solih a lead of MVR 4.3 billion.
However, this would imply that the MVR20.6 billion that remains of the MVR49.5 billion is going to be spent in ways that would not significantly benefit the economy or the national GDP.