By the end of last August, the Maldives' official reserve increased from USD 638.0 million to USD 643.8 million, the central bank MMA stated today.

According to information shared by the MMA with the media, this is a 0.9 percent growth.

Although the official reserve increased, the usable reserve declined from USD 221.9 million to USD 200.6 million, or by 9.6 percent.

The MMA stated that the main reason for the decline in the usable reserve was that the total amount of foreign currency sold by the institution during August exceeded the total amount of foreign currency received.

"In order to further facilitate the acquisition of foreign currency through the banking system and to bring further ease to the foreign exchange market, the amount of dollars sold to banks during the month of August has increased by 13.8 percent compared to the previous month," the MMA stated.

The MMA also stated that compared to last July, foreign currency received by the MMA as MIRA's tax and non-tax revenues decreased by 14.3 percent.