Finance Minister: Prices of goods to further increase this year

Citing the continuous increase of the prices of goods in the global market at present– Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer, on Tuesday, has stated that prices of goods in the Maldives will further increase this year.

Speaking at a press conference held today to brief the media on the economic situation of the Maldives – Minister Ameer said that a repetitive increase in prices of goods was observed during the first four months of this year. He detailed that the prices of food products spiked the most.

Underscoring that most food products utilized in the Maldives are imported from foreign nations – he said that the pricing changes in the global market will be reflected in the Maldives.

“I predict there will be changes to prices within the pending months of 2022. At present, prices of commodities are increasing in the global market as well,” he had said.

Minister Ameer said that although prices of food products have increased this year – total inflation has not changed as prices of telecom services were decreased at the end of last year. Nevertheless, he stressed that changes of prices in the upcoming days will reverse the base effect of the decreased prices of telecom services.

Speaking further, Minister Ameer said that prices of oil and other products were still on the rise due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict – whereas the impact of COVID-19 on the world supply chain has not yet been fully overcome.

He also said that although the Maldivian economy plummeted to levels never witnessed before in recent history during the year 2020 – the measures taken by the government had significantly improved the economy in 2021.

He added that it has been forecasted that the Maldivian economy will improve by 13 to 16 percent this year as well.

“What I want to highlight is that Maldivian economy has become one the fastest recovering economies compared to others globally due to measures taken by the government back then, in light of COVID-19,” he had said.