Country Report Maldives July 2020

Outlook for 2020-21: Monetary policy

The primary job of the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA, the central bank) is to maintain price stability, although legislation also tasks it with preserving an adequate level of international reserves and promoting non-inflationary economic growth. The MMA achieves monetary stability partly through the peg between the rufiyaa and the US dollar. In view of the peg, the central bank has little scope to conduct independent monetary policy. However, the MMA also uses minimum reserve requirements for banks and open-market operations as instruments to control credit creation and money supply. The MMA lowered the minimum reserve requirement to 5% in March to provide additional liquidity support to banks during the ongoing economic slowdown. On the whole, we believe that the central bank will maintain an accommodative policy stance in 2020-21 to support the economy.

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