The price of American dollars has increased to MVR 18.25 per dollar in the black market.
Traders said the buying rate was between MVR 17.95 to MVR 18.15 per dollar and the selling rate was between MVR 18.05 to MVR 18.25 per dollar yesterday.
The same rates are mentioned in the Currency Exchange MV Viber group, which has more than 10,000 members.
The dollar rate was also MVR 18 in the black market at the start of the year. However, the price of dollars fell as usual during the tourism season this year as well. The rate fell the lowest during the campaign for the parliamentary elections. The rate was as low as MVR 17.20 at the time.
However, the dollar rate started to rise again after the season ended and tourist arrivals started to decline.
The dollar rate first rose to MVR 18 less than two months after President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu said that the rate would go down.
Meanwhile, Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed told reporters at the Invest Maldives event in Dubai in February that the dollar situation would stabilize within the next two to four months.
President Muizzu also said the dollar rate would remain constant as a result of positive economic measures taken by his government.
"The price of dollars won't go extremely high. It will be kept constant. It will go lower than before. The currency's value will go up. The confidence of foreign investors is coming to our economy. The income earned by the country is increasing manifold," the President said during the parliamentary election campaign.
