Ministry of Finance has revealed that all sectors in the Maldives have shown growth in 2022.
The finance ministry showed the latest data on the Maldivian sectors in the proposed state budget for 2023. It shows that the tourism sector saw the highest growth due to the measures taken by the government to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The measures include the re-opening of borders which led to tourist visits exceeding expectations.
The government has set a target of 1.6 million tourist visits this year and the number of arrivals in the first 10 months has exceeded the numbers recorded in 2019. As such, a total of 1.3 million tourist visits were recorded in the first 10 months of 2022, while one million visits were recorded in the same period in 2019. The data also shows that the travel and tourism sector grew to 79% of the levels recorded in 2019 due to the increase in international airlines, and will likely reach pre-COVID-19 levels this year, with a medium-term growth of 11.4%.
The data on the industrial sector shows that a large number of infrastructure development projects are being conducted by private companies contracted by the government. The COVID-19 pandemic had caused delays in many projects due to the disruption in the global supply chain, which led to a halt in growth in 2021. However, the government resumed the stalled development projects this year, which resulted in a 9% growth in the first quarter and a 32.5% growth in the second quarter compared to the same period last year.
Additionally, USD2.3 million in construction materials were imported as of August 2022, which is a 13% increase compared to the USD1.4 million in materials imported in the same period in 2021. The increase in imports is the result of increased activity in the industrial sector, which is expected to show a medium-term growth of 10.5%.