By the end of last April, the state reserve dropped to 46 percent.

According to figures from the central bank, MMA, the official reserve stood at USD 718 million at the end of last month. In the preceding month, the official reserve stood at USD 1.3 billion. That was the month the reserve rose to its highest level in Maldivian history.

While the reserve has decreased, the state has repaid significant debts acquired by the previous government over the past two months.

At the beginning of April, the government fully settled the USD 524.68 million (MVR 8 billion) due for the sukuk issued in 2021. In addition, the MMA has paid back the USD 400 million currency swap taken from the Reserve Bank of India. Furthermore, the Maldivian government paid 50 million dollars this month from the T-bills sold to the State Bank of India (SBI).

In addition to the official reserve, the usable reserve also dropped to 40 percent. Last month, the usable reserve stood at USD 244 million. In the preceding month, there was USD 400 million in the usable reserve.

During the first three months of this year, the usable reserve maintained an amount higher than USD 1 billion. Figures from the MMA show that the reserve stood at USD 856 million in April of last year. Therefore, the reserve in April of this year has gone down by 16 percent compared to the same month last year.

Prior to the drop in the reserve amount last month, the state's official reserve and usable reserve had been increasing since the final quarter of last year. The reserve was increasing at the time due to a rise in the amount of dollars exchanged to banks by the tourism sector.

The revenue entering the state in dollars also decreased last month due to the war in the Middle East.

The Maldives currently spends the largest portion of its reserve on debt repayment and fuel imports. Due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, there is a possibility that the state's expenditure on fuel will increase to a record amount.