The official financial figures have shown that the state budget is in deficit of over MVR 1 billion.

The Finance Ministry released the details of the government's revenue and expenditure as of November 6 on Monday.

The figures show that the government has received MVR 32.6 billion in revenue, while MVR 33.6 billion was spent.

With these figures, the budget deficit, which was held in surplus for the majority of the year, is now in MVR 1 billion deficit.

While presenting the proposed state budget for next year, Finance Minister Moosa Zameer described the surplus as the government's biggest achievement this year.

Speaking at a rally a week later, Zameer said this year would end with the budget deficit in single digits.

The surplus was maintained over the past months because of the government's limited spending on development projects.

The government did not spend as approved by the parliament and has not implemented any cost-cutting measures as previously announced.

Most projects have been handed over to major state-owned enterprises (SOEs), like Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), without using the state budget.

Meanwhile, a big portion of the PSIP budget has been left unused and the previously announced cost-cutting measures have not been implemented.

Recurrent expenditure accounted for 86 percent of the total expenditure this year. Only MVR 6.3 billion has been spent out of MVR 12.4 billion in the PSIP budget.