The Maldivian government will finance loans to local businesses affected by the pandemic at an “interest rate like never seen in the country’s history,” the country’s Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer said, detailing the government stimulus plan to revive the country’s economy. 

In 2020, the Maldives’s economy contracted by a whopping 30 percent, largely due to the disruption in the tourism industry caused by the Covid-19. Relief measures will be announced under the national resilience and recovery plan, designed to return the country’s economy to pre-Covid status observed in 2019, as soon as possible.

The government is highly prioritizing expenditure to return the country’s heavily impacted economy back to pre-Covid status, Ameer was quoted as saying by Raajje Tv. The contraction in the economy caused by the pandemic cost the government around $1 billion in revenues last year.

Speaking on the government’s stimulus package, he said the government was introducing several economic relief and other stimulus packages to aid the public to overcome challenges.

So far, the Maldivian government has disbursed concessional loans worth $110 million--equal to the amount spent on ramping up the country’s health infrastructure. 

He assured that the government is ready to bear expenses whatever it may require to revive the domestic growth.  

(SAM)