India to offer Maldives US$250 million loan to recover from coronavirus
- A sale of treasury bonds issued by the Maldives government to the State Bank of India will raise the money, with 10 years given for repayment
- The loan takes India’s total pledged financial assistance to Maldives to more than US$2 billion since 2018, its foreign ministry says
Thousands of migrant workers stranded as tourism collapses in Maldives
India’s High Commission in the Maldives said the loan was being provided after a request by Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih for “financial assistance to overcome the difficult economic situation”.
“The Maldives is at liberty to use the money in repairing the domestic economic situation in line with its own priorities,” it said in a statement.
A sale of treasury bonds issued by the Maldives government to the State Bank of India (SBI) will raise the money, with 10 years given for repayment, the statement added.
Under former president Abdulla Yameen’s administration, which was ousted in 2018 elections, the Maldives borrowed some US$1.4 billion from Beijing for expensive infrastructure projects, according to Solih’s government.
The bond takes New Delhi’s total pledged financial assistance to the Maldives to over US$2 billion since Solih came to power, according to India’s foreign ministry.
The country, which still has a nighttime curfew in place to combat the virus, has recorded more than 9,600 infections and 33 deaths from Covid-19.
The Asian Development Bank forecasts the Maldives’ economy to contract by 20.5 per cent this year, compared to growth of 5.9 per cent last year.