Maldivian government has announced a MVR 2.5 billion recovery package to help businesses during the spread of Covid-19.

The announcement was made during a press conference by the Finance Ministry.

Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer revealed that a MVR 2.5 billion economic recovery package was launched in order to overcome the economic affects of the global pandemic. He noted that part of the package is the provision of working capital for businesses which will be facilitated through certain banks.

He further added that loans will be provided upto MVR 2 billion with no security and low interest rates, along with a grace period of six months. Repayment period for the loan with interest rates as low as 6 percent have been set as three years.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih previously revealed that the state initially projected a 7 per cent increase in tourism for this year and estimated a GDP growth of 7.5 per cent. However due to the repercussions of Covid-19 on the Maldivian economy, new estimates put the GDP growth rate anywhere between 0.5 per cent and -5.6 percent

Due to this, the projected state revenue will be short of about MVR 2.1 billion to MVR 6.9 billion.

So far there are 13 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Maldives. All of them are foreign nationals.