Maldives not a country that will fall into debt as people believe: Minister Saeed

Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed said today that the Maldives is not a country that will become indebted in the way people believe, and that Maldivians' thoughtfulness is greater than that. He made the remarks at a press conference held today, after international credit rating agency Moody's upgraded the Maldives' sovereign credit rating. Saeed said the upgrade was the result of work carried out jointly with relevant ministries by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, day by day. Noting that rival political parties had been waiting for a day when the Maldives would go bankrupt, Saeed said the rating upgrade is a benefit for investors and banks investing in the Maldives. "Maldives is now not a country that will become indebted in the way people believe. Rather, Maldivians' courage is there. Thoughtfulness is there," the minister said. According to Saeed, although the Maldives is small, the outside world believes it is a strong country that can stand on its feet in the international economy. While the minister said this, the credit rating was upgraded to CAA1. Moody's said the upgrade was because the risk of being unable to repay debts in the future had been greatly reduced, with large debts being serviced and strong measures taken to increase foreign exchange inflows. Moody's noted that the government had successfully repaid the large USD 500 million sukuk due in April this year. In addition, two Treasury bills of USD 50 million owed to the State Bank of India (SBI) and a USD 400 million currency swap facility had also been paid off. The repayment period for USD 100 million owed to the Abu Dhabi Fund has also been extended to 2031. With the repayment of these debts, foreign debt, which stood at USD 2.8 billion (35 percent of GDP) at the end of last year, had been reduced to USD 2.4 billion (30 percent of GDP) by the second quarter of this year. The article was written by Fathimath Sauna Mohamed and published on 13 Oct 2026 at 13:13.