World Bank in their latest regional update titled; Reshaping Norms: A New Way Forward, claimed that the Maldives real GDP is expected to grow by 8.5% in 2022 and by another 9.1% percent in 2023.
Moreover, the real GDP growth for medium-term is at 7.6% in 2022 and in 2023 it is expected to rise up to 10.2%.
According to World Bank, due to the successful vaccination programs, Maldives saw a “robust recovery in the tourism sector” despite repeated Covid waves. Touris arrivals were catching up to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of last year, however it still stayed 22% below 2019 levels by the end of 2021.
Regardless, the tourism receipts had almost reached pre-pandemic levels mainly due to tourists booking longer stays during the pandemic.
Due to the strong strides made by the tourism industry, the island nation’s economy observed strong recovery and is expected to expand further in the current fiscal year as well as in the following year.
Meanwhile, World Bank projects that the South Asian region collectively will experience a GDP growth by 6.6% in 2022 and by another 6.3% in 2023.
Furthermore, the bank claimed that the prospects of economical growth for the island nation were even higher but the “abrupt decline of visitor arrivals from Russia and Ukraine will dampen the momentum.”
However, this is expected to be offset with the resumption of Indian arrivals as flights resume direct operations while tourist arrivals from China may resume to pre-Covid levels by 2023.