Govt to raise MVR 15 billion with land sale to MMA

The Maldivian administration is working to raise around MVR 15 billion with the sale of a plot of land from Hulhumale’ to the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), confirms credible sources.

During his 2023 presidential campaign, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu vowed he would never print money, as his predecessor had resorted to during the Covid-19 pandemic. He repeatedly reiterated this pledge after coming to power, and listed avoiding printing money as one of the biggest achievements of his administration in its first year.

However, Sun has been informed that the administration is working on raising around MVR 15 billion through the central bank, MMA.

The administration is engaged in negotiation on selling a large plot of land from Hulhumale’ that is under the management of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) to MMA for a price of MVR 14 billion – MVR 15 billion.

On Sunday evening, President Muizzu hosted lawmakers from the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) at the presidential palace, Muliaage, and announced the plan.

“The president emphasized that it does not constitute as printing money,” said a PNC lawmaker who attended the meeting.

However, money printing or monetary financing is the practice of a government borrowing money from the central bank to finance public spending instead of selling bonds to private investors or raising taxes. It is not limited to the act of physically printing money.

Some economic analysist who spoke to Sun believe the administration is working on raising money to repay the staggering debt repayments due this year.

Rumors of plans to print money has been spreading for weeks on social media. However, the administration has yet to make an official comment regarding the subject.

The MMA has not made a comment either.

According to data shared by former President Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldives has a staggering USD 800 million (approximately MVR 12 billion to MVR 13 billion) in debt repayments due this year. This includes USD 150 million due by the end of March, and another USD 25 million in April.

The MVR 56.6 billion annual budget passed for 2025 includes projected savings of MVR 7.7 billion in expenditure.

However, despite the repeated warnings by international financial institutions to cut costs, there’s mounting concern that the administration hasn’t been able to cut down expenditure as planned as is digging itself deeper into debt.

The opposition has expressed concern over the situation, with Nasheed warning that by increasing the money supply by billions, the US dollar exchange rate is likely to surge well over MVR 24, consequently fueling inflation. He urged the administration revert to fiscal consolidation to reduce the budget deficit.

The MDP expressed concern that it will be regular citizens to suffer from the move.

The former MDP administration had printed MVR 8 billion due to the economic downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic. The former administration claims it resorted to printing money because it was left with no other choice to a complete cease in economic activity after the country’s airports were shut down.

But the move was widely slammed by the PNC administration in the past.