News

Economy & Markets

The bullet, the leak and the printing press: three systemic failures behind the dollar shortage

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.

Economy & Markets

GST bill would tax foreign tourism sales from October. MIRA has not shown how it will collect them

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.

Foreign Affairs

Muizzu's SAARC call puts a 1.94-billion-person bloc back on the agenda

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.

Revenue rose, but recorded expenditure rose much faster

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.

Government & Parliament

Maldives visitor survey shows strong visitor loyalty; spending chapter remains incomplete

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.