PNC Presidential Candidate Male' City Mayor Dr. Mohamed Muizzu says the Maldives must stop printing banknotes in order to regain the trust of global investors.
In an exclusive interview with "The Press," Muizzu was asked about how he intends to generate more revenue if he is elected as the next President.
Muizzu said that to generate more income he would attend to the many issues within the economy that need to be rectified.
He said that for one thing, global investors have lost their confidence in the Maldivian economy and that this is proven by the bad credit ratings being given to the Maldives by global credit raters.
Muizzu said that one of the ways to regain their trust was to bring a stop to the extreme banknote printing practice now in place in the country.
He also said that the government must stop dipping into the Central Bank's reserves to spend on recurrent costs as this was not how it was done.
The PNC Candidate spoke about the banknote printing issues of the current administration at a campaign rally a few days back.
Muizzu said that this administration was printing currency notes without any care. He said all the previous administrations printed currency notes worth MVR 6 billion in almost 40 years.
However, he said that the administration of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has surpassed this in just one term by printing currency notes worth MVR 8 billion in five years. He added that the country's economic situation remains dire.
Muizzu said that the administration is printing currency notes by suspending the article on the matter in the Fiscal Responsibility Act and that he would put a stop to it.
