How the Maldives economy is doing, in plain words: the Maldives Monetary Authority’s figures, what each one means, and how it compares with a year ago.
0.76%
Down 3.35 percentage points on a year earlier · Aug 2026
Low and steady is the aim
How much foreign currency is in the central bank?
US$547.8m
Down 36.3% on a year earlier · Sep 2026
Higher is usually better
How many months of imports would it pay for?
1.3 months
Down 0.01 months on the month (our calculation) · Aug 2026
Higher is usually better
122.7%
Down 2.09 percentage points on a year earlier · Q2 2026
Lower is usually better
How many rufiyaa for a dollar?
MVR 15.42
Unchanged on a year earlier · Sep 2026
Low and steady is the aim
Tap a question for its full record. Figures marked “our calculation” are worked out by Good Morning Maldives from MMA’s numbers.
Can the country pay its foreign bills?
Almost everything the Maldives eats, drives and builds with is bought abroad in dollars. The central bank keeps a stock of foreign currency, the , so those bills can be paid even in a bad month. These measures show how far that stock stretches.
1.3 months of imports
Is the economy growing?
adds up the value of everything produced in the country in a period: resort nights sold, fish landed, buildings put up, shop sales. When the figure rises, the country made more, not just charged more.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the value of everything the economy produces. The "real" series strip out price changes, so they show whether output itself grew; the nominal series are in the prices of the day. Quarterly and monthly figures are the timeliest reading, and annual figures are the benchmark they are later reconciled to.
Early monthly estimate
MVR 9.21bn
Up 2.8% on a year earlier · Jul 2026
Higher is usually better
An early monthly estimate of output. It moves more than the quarterly figure and is revised later.
MMA’s name: GDP at market price
How busy are the islands?
Tourism brings in most of the dollars the country earns. These figures count the visitors, the nights they stay, how full the beds are and what they spend. Fish, the main goods export, sits here too.
Tourism is the country’s main earner of foreign currency. Arrivals count visitors; bednights count the nights they stay, which is closer to what resorts and guesthouses actually sell; occupancy sets those nights against the beds available. Fisheries, the main goods export, are shown alongside.
Nights, beds and spending
1.3m
Up 0.9% on a year earlier · Aug 2026
Higher is usually better
Every night a visitor spends in a resort, hotel, guesthouse or boat. It is closer than arrivals to what the industry sells.
MMA’s name: Tourist bednights
How fast are prices rising?
is how much more the same shopping costs than a year before. Because rice, flour, fuel and most other goods are imported, world prices and shipping costs show up quickly on Malé’s shelves.
The consumer price index (CPI) tracks the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services. The inflation rate is the change in that index over twelve months. Prices are measured for Malé and for the atolls separately as well as nationally, and the three can move differently.
The price index
108.8
Up 0.8% on a year earlier · Aug 2026
The cost of a fixed basket of goods and services, set to 100 in a base year. Only its change matters.
MMA’s name: Total index
How is the government paying its way?
What the government collects in taxes and fees, what it spends on salaries, subsidies and projects, and how it borrows to cover the gap. The is that gap; is all the past gaps added up.
What the government collects, what it spends, and how the gap is financed. The overall balance is revenue and grants minus spending; the primary balance leaves out interest payments, so it shows the budget’s position before the cost of past borrowing. Debt is the accumulated result.
Spending and the gap
MVR 3.18bn
Down 11.9% on a year earlier · Jul 2026
All spending: salaries, pensions, subsidies, interest and building projects.
MMA’s name: Total recurrent and capital expenditure
How much money is there, and what does borrowing cost?
Cash and bank deposits together make up . It grows when banks lend. This section also shows how much of it is held in dollars, what the central bank charges, and whether the banks are sound.
How much money is in the economy, where it comes from, what it costs to borrow, and how sound the banks are. Broad money is currency plus deposits; it expands when banks lend to businesses, households or the government, and when foreign currency flows into the banking system.
Money in the economy
MVR 79.88bn
Up 20.5% on a year earlier · Sep 2026
Cash plus every kind of bank deposit, in rufiyaa and in foreign currency.
What comes in from the world, and what goes out?
Every dollar a tourist spends comes in; every shipment of food or fuel sends dollars out. The keeps that account. Here too: debts owed abroad and the rufiyaa’s .
Every term the tracker uses, in plain words. Underlined words elsewhere on the page open these too.
On a year earlier
Each month or quarter compared with the same one twelve months before. Resorts are always busier in February than in June, so comparing with last month would mostly show the season; comparing with last year shows the real change.
All the words used on this pagePercentage points
The plain gap between two percentages. If inflation goes from 2% to 3%, it rose by one percentage point. (It also rose by half, or 50%, which is a different statement.)
All the words used on this pageReal and nominal
Nominal figures use the prices of the day. Real figures take out price rises, so you see whether more was actually produced or sold. If a café sells the same coffees at higher prices, its nominal sales rise but its real sales do not.
All the words used on this pageGood Morning Maldives calculates these measures every month from MMA’s published figures. MMA does not publish them itself, so they are not official statistics and can differ from figures MMA quotes. Each card says how it is worked out, and its month-by-month page has the full record and a download.
Our calculation
1.3 months
Aug 2026 · Down 0.01 months on the month · Down 0.51 months on a year earlier
Higher is usually better
If no dollars came in at all, this is roughly how many months the central bank’s foreign currency could keep paying for everything the country buys from abroad, from fuel and food to shipping and insurance.
Official reserve assets at the end of the month, divided by an average month of imports: goods over the twelve months to that month (customs records, published monthly) plus imported services for the year (balance of payments, published once a year: the same year once it is complete, otherwise the latest complete year).
MMA publishes no monthly or quarterly figure for imported services, so that part is annual and is updated once a year. Customs values include the freight and insurance on goods, which the balance of payments also counts as services, so the import bill is slightly overstated and the cover slightly understated.
From MMA series: Official reserve assets, Import of goods (customs), Import of services (balance of payments).
Our calculation
1.8 months
Aug 2026 · Down 0.03 months on the month · Down 0.87 months on a year earlier
Higher is usually better
The same idea counting goods only, such as food, fuel and building materials. It reads higher because services are left out.
Official reserve assets at the end of the month, divided by the average monthly value of imported goods over the twelve months to that month (customs records).
Goods only: imported services such as freight, insurance and travel are left out because MMA reports them only once a year, so this reads higher than a cover based on all imports.
From MMA series: Official reserve assets, Import of goods (customs).
Our calculation
US$20.8m
Sep 2026 · Down US$59.2 million on the month · Down US$56.9 million on a year earlier
Higher is usually better
The reserves minus foreign-currency payments already committed within a year, such as loan repayments: a rough guide to how much is truly free to use.
Official reserve assets less the predetermined short-term net drains on foreign currency (payments already committed within a year), both from MMA’s reserve data template, at the same month end.
A proxy for what MMA calls usable reserves, not MMA’s own figure: MMA deducts its short-term foreign-currency liabilities, chiefly banks’ dollar deposits with it, and the template’s drains cover similar but not identical items.
From MMA series: Official reserve assets, Predetermined short-term net drains.
Our calculation
10.57%
Sep 2026 · Down 1.91 percentage points on the month · Down 9.42 percentage points on a year earlier
Higher is usually better
How much of the money people hold in cash and bank accounts could be turned into dollars from the reserves if many wanted to switch at once.
Official reserve assets converted to rufiyaa at the month-end exchange rate, as a share of broad money at the same month end.
Broad money includes foreign-currency deposits, so the ratio measures how far reserves could meet a run out of all bank money, not only rufiyaa.
From MMA series: Official reserve assets, Broad money, Rufiyaa per US dollar (daily), Rufiyaa per US dollar (monthly average).
GDP by year
6.32%
Up 2.89 percentage points on a year earlier · 2025
Higher is usually better
How much more the economy produced in a year than in the year before, after taking out price changes.
MMA’s name: Real GDP growth rate
GDP every quarter
MVR 29.1bn
Up 4.6% on a year earlier · Q2 2026
Higher is usually better
The same quarterly output measured in the prices of the day. It rises with prices as well as with production, so compare it with the figure.
MMA’s name: GDP at market price
GDP every quarter
MVR 4.56bn
Down 14.3% on a year earlier · Q2 2026
The value added by resorts, hotels, guesthouses and liveaboards, with price changes taken out.
MMA’s name: Tourism
Nights, beds and spending
58.94%
Down 2.14 percentage points on a year earlier · Aug 2026
Higher is usually better
Nights sold as a share of all the beds open.
MMA’s name: Occupancy rate
Nights, beds and spending
US$392.9m
Up 15.3% on a year earlier · Jul 2026
Higher is usually better
Money visitors spend in the country, in US dollars. It is the largest source of the country’s foreign currency.
MMA’s name: Travel receipts
Nights, beds and spending
7.4
Up 5.7% on a year earlier · Aug 2026
How many nights the average visitor stays. Shorter stays mean fewer nights sold for the same arrivals.
MMA’s name: Average stay
Oil price
US$84.4
Up 26.5% on a year earlier · Aug 2026
Lower is usually better
The price of a barrel of crude oil on world markets. All fuel is imported, so this feeds into electricity, transport and the import bill.
MMA’s name: Crude oil prices
Inflation
5.69%
Up 1.11 percentage points on a year earlier · Aug 2026
Low and steady is the aim
How much more food and drink cost than a year before. Most food is imported, so world prices and shipping matter.
MMA’s name: Food and beverages
Inflation
8.06%
Up 8.59 percentage points on a year earlier · Aug 2026
Low and steady is the aim
How much more getting around costs than a year before, including fuel, fares and vehicles.
MMA’s name: Transport
Spending and the gap
MVR 400.7m
Up MVR 210.1 million on a year earlier · Jul 2026
Higher is usually better
Money in minus money out. Below zero is a that must be borrowed.
MMA’s name: Overall balance (surplus / deficit)
Government debt
MVR 152.78bn
Up 2.5% on a year earlier · Q2 2026
Everything the government owes, plus debts it has guaranteed, at home and abroad.
MMA’s name: Total outstanding
Money coming in
MVR 3.02bn
Down 8.2% on a year earlier · Jul 2026
Tax the government received in the period, chiefly goods and services tax, much of it paid on tourism.
MMA’s name: Tax revenue
MMA’s name: Broad money
Where the money comes from
MVR 44.13bn
Up 18% on a year earlier · Sep 2026
Loans banks have made to the private sector, outstanding at the end of the period.
MMA’s name: Claims on private sectors
Are the banks healthy?
3.67%
Down 3.63 percentage points on a year earlier · Jul 2026
Lower is usually better
The share of bank loans that are seriously behind on repayments.
MMA’s name: Nonperforming loans to total gross loans
Money in the economy
40.09%
Down 2.25 percentage points on a year earlier · Sep 2026
How much of is held in foreign currency, mostly US dollars.
MMA’s name: Dollarization ratio
The economy’s dealings with the rest of the world: the foreign currency the central bank holds, the goods bought and sold abroad, the wider balance of payments, what is owed to foreign lenders, and the exchange rates at which rufiyaa is converted.
Goods bought and sold abroad
US$419.3m
Up 32.5% on a year earlier · Aug 2026
The value of goods bought from abroad, in US dollars, as recorded by customs.
MMA’s name: Import of goods
Goods bought and sold abroad
US$41.3m
Up 42.1% on a year earlier · Aug 2026
Higher is usually better
The value of goods sold abroad, mostly fish, in US dollars.
MMA’s name: Export of goods
Debt owed abroad
US$3.96bn
Down 9.8% on a year earlier · Q2 2026
What the government, the companies it guarantees and the banks owe to foreign lenders.
MMA’s name: Total external debt outstanding
The country’s account with the world
−US$476.2m
Up US$777.4 million on a year earlier · 2025
Higher is usually better
Earnings from abroad, mainly tourism, minus payments abroad for imports, profits and money workers send home. Below zero means more went out than came in.
Figures are published by the Maldives Monetary Authority and the agencies it credits for each series. Good Morning Maldives stores a copy, adds the calculations described on each page, and does not alter the underlying numbers. The data are checked against MMA every day, and each revision MMA makes is kept so the versions can be compared.
GDP
Gross domestic product: the value of all goods and services produced in the country in a period, from resort stays to tuna catches to new buildings.
Inflation
How much higher prices are than a year earlier. Inflation falling from 4% to 2% means prices are still rising, only more slowly. Only a negative figure means prices fell.
All the words used on this pageOfficial reserves
Foreign currency, mostly US dollars, and other reserve assets held by the Maldives Monetary Authority. They are the country’s savings for paying import and debt bills in dollars when earnings fall short, for example when tourists stop coming.
All the words used on this pageMonths of import cover
Reserves divided by an average month of imports. It answers: if no dollars came in, how long could the reserves keep paying for imports? Three months is a widely quoted rule of thumb; it is a convention, not an official target.
All the words used on this pageShort-term drains
Foreign-currency payments already fixed for the coming twelve months, such as scheduled loan repayments and interest. They are money the reserves will have to pay out whatever happens.
All the words used on this pageBroad money
All the money people and businesses hold: cash, current accounts, savings and fixed deposits, in rufiyaa and in dollars. Narrow money is the part that can be spent at once: cash and current accounts.
All the words used on this pageDollarization
How much of the money in the economy is held in foreign currency, mostly US dollars, rather than rufiyaa. Resorts are paid in dollars, so a lot of money in the Maldives is held in dollars.
All the words used on this pageThe rufiyaa–dollar peg
The central bank keeps the rufiyaa’s value against the US dollar almost fixed. To do that it needs enough dollars in reserve to meet demand at that rate.
All the words used on this pagePolicy rate
The interest rate the central bank sets to steer what banks charge for rufiyaa loans and pay on deposits.
All the words used on this pageBalance of payments
The record of every payment between the Maldives and the rest of the world in a year: what tourists spend here, what we pay for imports, profits and wages sent abroad, and loans coming in and being repaid.
All the words used on this pageCurrent account
The everyday part of the balance of payments: trade in goods and services, income and transfers. A deficit means more money flowed out than came in, and it has to be covered by borrowing, investment from abroad or the reserves.
All the words used on this pageBudget deficit
When the government spends more than it collects in a period. It is covered by borrowing, which adds to public debt.
All the words used on this pagePublic debt and debt-to-GDP
Everything the government owes, at home and abroad, including debts it guarantees. Dividing it by a year’s GDP shows how heavy the debt is for an economy of this size.
All the words used on this pageNon-performing loans
Loans whose borrowers are seriously behind on repayments, usually 90 days or more. A higher share means more bad debt in the banks.
All the words used on this page