Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Fazeel Najeeb met Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz last week to discuss the policy measures taken to alleviate the dollar shortage and determine what additional efforts could be undertaken to resolve the problem.
According to an MMA press statement on Thursday, Najeeb and Inaz agreed that given the continuing scarcity of dollars, “the problem of partiality by some to transactions with dollars instead of rufiyaa is tied to the dollar shortage.”
“It was therefore decided to go forward by consulting the business community about the issue,” it adds.
Deputy Governor Aishath Zahira, State Minister Ahmed Naseer and MMA technical staff also participated in the meeting.
Local media meanwhile reported a sharp rise in the wholesale prices of a number of commodities last week, ranging from powdered milk to areca nuts. Following the government’s decision earlier this month to replace the fixed exchanged rate with a managed float of the rufiya within a band of 20 percent of the 12.85 peg, newly-appointed Finance Minister Inaz told press that he expected the economy to stabilise within three months.