Official statistics have shown that the government has spent over a billion MVR on loan repayment this year.

The latest weekly budget development report released by the Ministry of Finance shows that the government has spent MVR 1,1015.5 million on loan repayments as of December 9. Last year this amount was MVR 852.6 million, although MVR 3.7 billion was approved for this purpose.

During the presentation of the budget for the coming year, the Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer said that despite having had to borrow several loans from several creditors, the debt of the current administration stood at 34 billion by MVR. The reason for the high debt is due to loans from the old administration, he said.

The budget for the coming year shows a deficit of 9.7 billion MVR, or 11.1% of GDP. An additional $ 13.4 billion MVR is needed to fund next year’s budget. The amount includes the budget deficit of 9.7 billion MVR, 2.9 billion MVR for loan repayment, 769.2 million MVR transferred to the Sovereign Development Fund and 35.7 million additional MVR that the administration must finance by other means. The government plans to obtain up to 7.5 billion MVR from foreign parties and 5.9 billion MVR from local parties.