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India has approved a rollover of the INR 30 billion swap the Maldives drew in April. Worth about US$311 million, it is close to twice the country's usable reserves. What the decision relieves, what it does not, and the path of Indian support ahead.
By Fathimath Saairaa
Operation Economic Outcast has moved US sanctions from named targets to whole sectors, from principals to service providers, and onto the world’s correspondent banks. How the dollar reaches the Maldives, what the new rules are, and what they mean for a small economy that lives on the dollar
By Fathimath Saairaa
Minister of Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Dr Abdulla Muththalib answers the Palestine-related concerns raised about Rasmalé: what Zionist settlement has historically required, what the April 2025 Israeli passport ban already does, and the protections proposed for the sale.
By Dr Abdulla Muththalib
Moody's raised the Maldives to Caa1 on 8 October 2026, its first upgrade since it began rating the country in 2016. Here is what the upgrade means, the six reforms since 2024 that earned it, and the numbers that show each one working.
By White Tern
Critics see the Ras Malé rolling lease as a risk. We argue it supports development: it stops leases losing value, helps pay for infrastructure and gives the State income from every sale, while the land is never sold. We list the conditions it must meet.
By Fathimath Saairaa
In an op-ed, Housing Minister Abdulla Muththalib answers critics of the Rasmalé agreement with Eagle Hills: no upfront cheque but TGST, a 10 percent revenue share and 4 percent on property sales, all receipts held in escrow in the Maldives; homes in Hulhumalé funded up front.
By Dr Abdulla Muththalib
Maldivian public finance carried three structural weaknesses into the 2020s: debt refinanced as single bullet maturities, tourism dollars with no obligation to enter the domestic banking system, and a deficit that could be financed by creating money. All three were left intact through 2018–2023.
By White Tern
A Majlis bill would charge 17 per cent tourism GST on what is described as the margin foreign operators and booking platforms earn on Maldivian holidays — a projected MVR 1.6 billion a year. The principle is orthodox. Neither the arithmetic nor the collection machinery has been shown.
By White Tern
President Muizzu has called for SAARC's revival and offered the Maldives' good offices. Nine years without a summit have left South Asia the world's least integrated region — under 5% intra-regional trade across a bloc of 1.94 billion people.
By White Tern
The Ministry recorded stronger revenue in the first half of 2026, but an even larger rise in expenditure. Subsidies and grants drove much of the increase, while the primary surplus narrowed sharply.
By Fathimath Saairaa
A government survey of 3,047 departing tourists finds strong destination loyalty and unusually high satisfaction. Its short, single-airport sampling window and an incomplete spending chapter, however, mean it establishes less about the economic value of tourism than its headline findings suggest.
By Fathimath Saairaa
