The Maldives' debt has declined as a percentage of GDP after the accumulation of debt fell below economic growth since the last quarter of 2023.
According to a quarterly bulletin published by the Finance Ministry, public debt stood at 110.1 percent of GDP. As the figure was 116 percent of GDP in last year's final quarter, this was a decline of 6.4 percent.
As debt declined, the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew from 107.2 to 114.6. This means that the economy grew significantly in the first quarter of this year compared to the last quarter of 2023.
According to the Finance Ministry's bulletin, MVR 62.9 million was added to external debt and MVR 1.4 billion was added to domestic debt in this year's first quarter. Domestic debt is usually funds obtained from the sale of bonds to Maldivian companies.
The Finance Ministry's statistics also showed a significant increase in the amount spent on debt service in the first quarter. While MVR 655.2 million was spent to repay external debt in the final quarter of last year, MVR 995.2 million was spent this year.
In this year's first quarter, MVR 1.2 billion was spent to repay domestic debt, up from MVR 862.8 million in the final quarter of last year.
