Real GDP growth projected to rise to 7.5 percent in 2020

Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) projects the real GDP growth to accelerate to 7.5 percent in 2020.

The central bank released the latest economic updates, along with the annual GDP growth forecast, this Tuesday.

MMA projects the annual real GDP growth in 2019 to moderate to 5.7 percent, well below the 6.8 percent it had previously projected.

This moderation in growth has been attributed mainly to the construction sector slowdown – resulting from the completion of several large-scale government infrastructure development projects in 2018, and delay in infrastructure projects budgeted for 2019.

Tourism and related sectors such as transport, communication and wholesale and retail trade are expected to be the main drivers of real GDP growth in 2019.

While real GDP growth in 2019 is now projected to fall short of earlier expectations, MMA expects things to pick up in 2020.

It expects an acceleration in growth, driven by a strong tourism sector performance and a pickup in construction sector growth owing to the high expenditure on public sector investment projects budgeted for 2020.

MMA expects this to lead to an acceleration of 7.5 percent in real GDP growth.