According to Maldives central bank the gross international reserves and the usable reserves of the country declined in February 2020.
Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) revealed in their latest statistical report the island nation's usable reserve was recorded at USD277.7 million by the end of review month.
In January 2020, the usable reserves registered a total of USD311 million while the reserves for the review month of February observed a decline by 6.3% compared to the same month in 2019.
The Gross International Reserves (GIR) of the country dropped in February after an increase in January 2020. According to MMA the GIR recorded USD776 million by end of January while in February the total was recorded at USD757.4 million for GIR.
Statistics further confirm the GIR declined by 19.6% in review month compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.
Earlier, Maldives Ministry of Finance revealed in the state budget for 2020 a forecast total of USD818.8 million expected to be the total of the national reserve by the end of the current year.
However, the now pandemic COVID-19 has drastically affected on the global economy which in turn took a heavy toll on the island nation's economy as well.
The tourism industry, which is the country's largest economic component, have come to a standstill with no new tourist arrivals.
Earlier, the Maldives government announced a temporary cease of on-arrival visas, declared on 28 March.
Ths situation is made more critical with all major international carriers announcing temporary cessation of flight operations to Maldives with just a few airlines operating; with reduced flight numbers.
Meanwhile Maldives Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer forecast a decline of tourist arrivals between 37 to 50 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The country's state budget is expected to observe an overall balance deficit by MVR12 billion in 2020 - lowest in recent years.
While the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 3.5 percent the economic growth will slow down hitting a negative 5.3 percent.
