The economy had

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said that the economy of the Maldives had ‘fallen into a pit’ when he took over as president, with an external debt of $725 million (MVR 11,179.5 million) as a result of high expenditure.

The president made this remark while delivering the presidential address amidst protests by MDP parliamentary group members, at the inaugural ceremony of the parliament for this year.

He said that the priority of his government has been to recover from the bad economic situation.

“Several steps have been taken to reduce government costs, and several bills have been submitted to the parliament related to increasing government income and revising laws,” he said.

He said that regaining control of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport from Indian company GMR had increased foreign currency coming into the country, and facilitated solutions to the problem of shortage of dollars.

“The government’s aim is to ensure that foreign currency that enters the country is retained,” he said.

The president said in his second presidential address, that the introduction of housing loans and personal loans by local banks also benefited the people of the Maldives.

President Waheed said that the action taken to address the bad economic situation resulted in GDP growth of 3.4 percent last year, and 4.3 percent projected growth for this year.

He said that the government was working on a strategy to base the economy of the Maldives on several industries.

The president completed delivering his presidential address on the fourth attempt. He was forced to pause three times due to the chaos created in the parliament hall by some members of MDP. Some MPs were also asked to leave the parliament hall.