Sovereign Fund to be Deposited in Dollars

The Sovereign Development Fund (SDF) will now be deposited in dollars with the aim of converting all funds into dollars as soon as possible, the Finance Ministry said.

The Sovereign Development Fund (SDF) has raised $13 million in the past two weeks as part of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s 14 Week roadmap, which has set the goal of converting all funds into dollars.

When President Dr. Muizzu took over the government, most of the money in the SDF was in Maldivian currency. Around 80% of the SDF's funds are invested in T-bills. The previous government converted most of the dollars in the SDF into Maldivian currency, which depleted the dollar reserves.

The government aims to increase the Sovereign Development Fund from 7.4 billion MVR to 9.7 billion MVR by the end of this year. According to the approved budget, 1.2 billion MVR will be allocated to the SDF this year.

In 2017, the government of President Yameen established the Sovereign Development Fund to store foreign currency to facilitate the repayment of debt for major development projects.