The national economy expands along a positive trajectory, making a future credit rating downgrade highly unlikely, the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises announced, citing resilience despite global wartime conditions. This stability prompted Fitch Ratings to upgrade the country's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to ‘CCC-‘ from ‘CC’.
The advancement stems from revenue-side reforms, Ahmed Saaid Musthafa, the deputy minister of finance, said on the PSM News programme ‘Raajje Miadhu’. These measures include steps to increase revenue and strict legal implementations of foreign currency regulations, Saaid noted.
Despite global shocks, internal assessments and medium-term forecasts project a robust economic rebound. Fitch highlights a low default risk, which Saaid attributed to elevated revenues and expenditure controls.
"In this assessment, the agency highlights that a future downgrade would only be triggered if constraints emerge in servicing debt, or if the government encounters difficulties in settling its sovereign obligations,” Saaid elaborated. “However, at this current juncture, we view the likelihood of such a scenario materialising in the short term as highly improbable. This confidence is directly driven by the notable increase in state revenues."
Further upgrades depend on increasing official reserves and restraining short-term expenditures to establish long-term financial stability, Saaid outlined. Concurrently, Fitch Ratings disclosed that the Maldives will expand rapidly over the medium term, strengthened by tourism progress, new resort investments, and infrastructure development.