Finance Minister Dr. Mohamed Shafeeq has informed the Parliament that since the COVID-19 related-exception given to the government for money printing expires this year, this administration has decided to bring a halt to the printing.
In a letter to the Parliament, Minister Shafeeq said that some of the articles of the Fiscal Responsibility Act were suspended to combat a situation that arose from a natural disaster and that is no such situation now.
The Minister went on to say that the new government has decided to securitize the overdrawn amount from the State Reserve and change it into a long-term bond.
Minister Shafeeq noted that the economic outlook of the country shows that last year's GDP has gone higher than that of the pre-COVID years.
The Articles of the Fiscal Responsibility Act were suspended in April of 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This allowed the central Bank MMA to print over MVR 4.4 billion in an year.
