Overview
The Ministry of Finance (formally Finance and Public Enterprises, under Minister Hassan Zareer) manages the state budget, debt issuance and transfers to councils and state companies. Its Weekly Fiscal Developments report and Quarterly Debt Bulletin are the primary public record of the Government Fiscal Position.
Role in the intelligence picture
The ministry’s own publications document the fiscal side of the Dollar Shortage: spending growing faster than revenue, subsidies past their full-year budget, and debt service leaving mostly in foreign currency. It also drives austerity, having instructed the PCB on 18 April 2026 to impose a 33 percent headcount cut on State-Owned Enterprises.
Recent developments
- 20 August 2026: the weekly report for the year to 13 August showed wages, allowances and pensions at MVR 9,384.4m (up 11.2 percent), subsidies at MVR 3,485.3m (120.6 percent of the full-year budget, up 78.4 percent), and an overall deficit of MVR 950.3m against a MVR 1,021.4m surplus a year earlier.
- Same report: loan repayment reached MVR 9,715.2m by 13 August, up 146.6 percent year on year, the fastest-rising line in the accounts.
- 20 August 2026: withheld MVR 19m of Malé City Council’s MVR 19.29m August block grant; the council wrote that paying August salaries would be difficult.
- Q2 2026 Debt Bulletin: total state debt MVR 152.7bn (122.7 percent of GDP), with 45.7 percent maturing or needing refinancing within 12 months.
Related topics
Government Fiscal Position · Sovereign Debt · Sovereign Debt Risk · State-Owned Enterprises · Maldives Economy · Maldives Monetary Authority