Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Ahmed Nazim, has stated that there is no truth to the rumors about President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s government planning to print money. He assured that if the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) releases money into circulation, it will be done responsibly. Speaking at the Parliament’s Public Finance Committee yesterday, Nazim said that as MMA is essentially a bank, it should be allowed to purchase assets and land for profitable business purposes. However, he confirmed that the government is not seeking to borrow large amounts from MMA as some parties claim.
“I can say with 100% certainty that the talk of 14 billion or 20 billion is merely to create concern among the public. This government will not act so irresponsibly, I can assure you,” Nazim stated.
Nazim noted that the current government has repaid a large loan taken by the previous MDP government and that there’s another $50 million loan to be paid this year. He added that if the government releases money into circulation, it will be done within permissible limits.
“For example, if we paid $150 million, that’s about 2.3 or 2.5 billion rufiyaa. The government won’t release more than that into the monetary system,” Nazim explained.
Nazim said the government won’t release more money because it aims to reduce the deficit to 9.4 billion rufiyaa by the end of the year, and releasing a large amount of money would prevent achieving this target. He also mentioned that if the government receives any income, it would prioritize paying off its debt to MMA. Nazim firmly stated that the talk of printing 15 billion rufiyaa is an outright lie.
“A lie doesn’t become truth even if repeated 1000 times. No matter how much it’s said, written online, in newspapers, or anywhere else, a lie remains a lie. These figures you’re mentioning are absolutely false,” Nazim emphasized.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu came to power promising not to print money and to run the economy without doing so, criticizing the previous government’s money printing which he claimed caused irreparable damage to the country.
