Maldives to officially request debt deferment

Maldives will officially request to defer on its debt in order to overcome the economic impact of COVID-19, Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer has said.

The Maldivian economy, heavily dependent on tourism, is expected to be the worst-hit among the region due to the pandemic virus that has halted global tourism and travel.

Finance Minister Ameer was speaking in a news conference today when he noted that the G20 countries have decided on a debt relief moratorium for developing nations, during the last meetings of the World Bank and IMF.

Minister Ameer noted that Maldives was also seeking such a moratorium, which if successful could see the state expenditure at MVR 25 billion at the end of the year.

“If we receive a debt moratorium as such, we can save around MVR 4 billion this year. We can estimate that we can save the MVR 4 billion spent on debt services.” Said Minister Ameer.

He noted that measures must be taken on mitigating the effects on the state income and highlighted the measures in place to cut down on expenditure.

Minister Ameer said that around MVR 850 million have been deducted from the budgets of government offices. The halt on hiring recruits would also save the government by about MVR 1 billion, said Minister Ameer.