The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) injected a total of USD993.7 million to the domestic market in 2022; which is a 53% increment compared to the preceding year.
According to the central bank, this surge is attributed to the significant bump in US dollar sales to cater to the rising foreign exchange demand of the public and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
The largest proportion of the total US dollar sales was made to SOEs at USD726.0 million; which is 73% of the total. This is also an annual increment of 90%; largely due to the rise in global oil prices and the increment in the cost of external borrowings.
MMA continued to allocate US dollars to commercial banks to meet the foreign exchange demand of public and local businesses. US dollar sales to commercial banks amounted to USD267.7 million, making up 19.3% of the total and a 1% increment from 2021.
Moreover, the central bank allocated USD158.1 million as normal weekly allocations, and another USD33.3 million for Maldivians traveling abroad for medical and educational purposes.
Furthermore, USD60.9 million was sold under the category of facilitating a limit of USD500 per person via Bank of Maldives (BML) for Maldivians traveling abroad.
MMA provided a total of USD15.4 million through banks to cater to other foreign currency requirements, including US dollar to Hajj and Umrah groups.
US dollar sales have continued to increase annually for the past three years, the central bank has used USD400 million currency swap facility extended by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to manage the national reserve, with 50% of its US dollar reserve acquired through short-term financial instruments.