President: Difficult six months are ahead, country needs USD 1b

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has said that the forthcoming six months of the year will be economically very difficult for the Maldives.

The President made the remarks during a press conference held today.

"The next six months will be very difficult. Not only for the state expenditure but also for the expenditure of the public. Public businesses will also face huge difficulties." said the President.

The government was working to find income for the state budget, said the President who noted that USD 1 billion was needed to overcome the current situation.

"We can only overcome this with at least USD 900 million or 1 billion being injected to our finances." said the President.

The President also announced deferments made by China to Maldivian repayments as well as aid worth USD 50 million from Saudi Arabia and UAE to the Maldives today.

The Maldives is expected to be one of the worst-hit countries economically due to COVID-19, due to the dependency on the tourism sector which came to a complete standstill due to COVID-19