Govt aims to maintain debt interest payments at 12% of revenue

Next year’s budget is focused on maintaining the government’s debt interest payments at 12 percent of the total revenue, says Finance Minister Hassan Zareer.

He made the remark while presenting a proposed state budget of MVR 59.7 billion for next year at the Parliament on Thursday afternoon.

2027 budget highlights:

• Budget: MVR 59.7 billion
• Expenditure: MVR 52.6 billion
• Revenue and grants: MVR 43.2 billion
• Budget deficit: MVR 9.4 billion

Addressing the Parliament, Zameer said the government projects the debt-to-GDP ratio to be at 117 percent next year. He said that the government aims to lower the ratio to 116.3 percent in 2028, and 107.9 percent in 2029.

The government has allocated a budget of MVR 8.2 billion for Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) projects next year.

According to Zameer, the government aims to keep funding of PSIP projects from the domestic market capped at 70 percent.

“In addition, next year’s budget is aimed at maintaining the interest payments on foreign debt at 12 percent of the total revenue generated by the country,” he said.

To be updated...