Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer says for the first time, Maldives' nominal GDP will surpass the MVR 100 billion mark this year.
He said via Twitter that this is a testament to the sound macroeconomic policies adopted by the government to achieve steady growth regardless of the multiple crises the country faces.
The Minister said that the positive change is being driven by the strong performance of the tourism sector and the positive spillover to other related sectors.
He said that the real GDP growth for 2023 is revised upwards, from the previous forecast of 7.6 percent to 9.4 percent. He added that growth is expected to remain high over the medium term as well.
Minister Ameer further said that despite the Russia-Ukraine war and the outbound travel restrictions by China, tourist arrivals to the Maldives increased by 26.7 percent in 2022 compared to 2021 and reached 1.68 million tourists.
The Minister added that this is 98.4 percent of the pre-pandemic levels we saw in 2019.
He noted that the performance of the sector continues to be strong this year as well, with arrival numbers from the beginning of this year to date 17.5 percent higher compared to the corresponding period of 2022.
Minister Ameer highlighted that based on this and the positive indications of new flight routes opening and the recovery of the Chinese market, the arrival forecast for 2023 has now been revised upwards from the October 2022 forecast of 1.81 million arrivals to 1.93 million arrivals.
