Former Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer says the country's economic situation is not where there is a need to print money and that it is not as bad as the government is making it sound.
Speaking at the panel discussion held by MDP last night, the former Minister said the government's observations about the economic situation do not make sense.
He said that the government's accusations about the economic situation when MDP's five-year term ended do not match the numbers and that the numbers show that this government came into power in a better situation than when MDP came into power in 2018.
He further said that when the MDP took over the government in 2018, Maldives' GDP was about MVR 83 billion, but when the MDP government changed hands in 2023, the GDP stood at MVR101 billion.
The former Minister said the country's economy was hit hard by the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, with the country's borders closed, economic activities halted and the country's productivity falling to 32 percent.
However, he said that due to the strong measures taken, Maldives' economy was among the fastest-growing economies in the world in 2021.
He said that the country's economy has fallen into a pit due to the incompetence of the government and that expenditures have increased dramatically, with more than 2,000 political jobs from 700.
