Wednesday
24th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
President Solih and Finance Minister Ameer. Photo: President's Office.
Finance Ministry statistics show that Ibrahim Mohamed Solih administration has added an additional MVR 4 billion (US$ 259.2 million) to the state debt in the first three months of the year.
With this figure the total debt has hit MVR 98.8 billion (US$ 6.4 billion).
At the end of March, total debt taken on by the state amounted to MVR 84.7 billion (US$ 5.5 billion). The reminder is the amount taken as state backed guarantees.
At the end of 2021, total debt, not counting state backed guarantees, stood at MVR 79.9 billion (US$ 5.2 billion). A simple check shows that in the first three months of this year, the administration took out MVR 4.8 billion (US$ 259.2 million).
Without accounting for state backed guarantees, debt now accounts for 97 percent of Gross Domestic Product. When state backed guarantees are included, debt accounts for 113 percent of GDP.
Internal debt is now MVR 46 billion (US$ 3.0 billion), while internal debt is at MVR 52. 8 billion (US$ 3.4 billion).
While the debt situation had risen to worrying levels, the Government assures that there would be no difficulties meeting the debts. This was in spite of a warning by JPMorgan, that Maldives faced risk of sovereign default within 19 months, if measures are not implemented immediately.