The State Trading Organisation’s board of directors decided to propose a dividend of MVR77 (US$5) per share for 2022. This proposal will be presented at STO’s upcoming Annual General Meeting.
STO posted a record operating profit of MVR1 billion (US$64.8 million) for 2022. Record-breaking revenues of MVR18 billion for the year was up 79% from 2021. The annual profit of MVR789 million also represented a 52% increase from the previous year.
The state-owned behemoth is the country’s primary wholesaler, responsible for importing the vast majority of basic foodstuffs such as rice, flour, and sugar. STO subsidiaries also trade in petroleum, cooking gas, construction materials, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, electronics, supermarket products and insurance.
The Bank of Maldives announced the relocation of its U.S. dollar ATM from Henveiru Marine Dream in front of the artificial beach to Maafannu Star Cloud on the western end of Majeedhee Magu.
The Maldives-based leisure luxury airline Beond received about 4,000 online applications for cabin crew jobs from across the world. The airline also conducted an open-day event on Wednesday with walk-in interviews for about 150 participants.
A joint venture between UAE-based investment group Arabesque and local trading company SIMDI Group, the airline previously planned to commence flights in early 2023, offering a “private jet experience” to passengers. The new launching target is June or July, a marketing official told local media.
The Maldives Monetary Authority estimated the economy to have grown by 13.9% in 2022.
“The robustness in growth during 2022 was driven by the buoyant tourism sector owing to the pent-up demand from traditional source markets of Europe as well as key Asian source markets, despite the strong headwinds from geopolitical and economic uncertainties as well as from China’s zero-COVID policy,” the central bank observed in its annual report.
Reflecting the lucrative hospitality industry’s resilience and recovery, tourism receipts was estimated to have reached US$4.5 billion in 2022, up from US$3.5 billion in 2021. “This was a growth of 41% when compared to the US$3.2 billion registered in 2019,” the report noted.
Tourist arrivals surpassed the government’s target and reached a total of 1,675,303 in 2022 (98% of the 1.7 million tourists arrivals in 2019). The central bank estimated the gross value added (GVA) of the tourism sector “to have registered an annual growth of 22.4% during 2022, following the significant rebound of 152.0% observed in 2021.”
As global commodity prices remained elevated during the year, the average rate of inflation accelerated to 2.3% in 2022, up from 0.5% in 2021.
During 2022, the MMA sold US$726 million worth of U.S. dollars to state-owned enterprises, 73% of total sales.
Food prices grew 1.01% in March compared to the previous month.
“The main contributor to this rise was the increase in prices of Lime (+45.12%), Reef Fish (+4.77%), Carrot (+18.29%), Young coconut (+8.57%), Githeyo Mirus (+8.38%), Coconut (Dry nut) (+2.59%), Oranges (+5.52%), Mango (+2.20%), Smoked Fish (+2.65%), Green Chilly (+4.83%), Fish paste (+1.18%), Watermelon (+4.90%), Dried fish (+8.22%), Milk packet flavored (+0.83%), Curry leave (+4.81%), and Milk pow- der (+0.66%),” the statistics bureau explained.
“This rise was partially offset by fall in price of Onion (-9.47%), Tuna (-2.78%), Dates- Dried (-13.86%) , Potatoes (-8.08%), Frozen Chicken (-1.14%) and Cucumber (-3.82%).”
On an annual basis, the Consumer Price Index for food and beverages was up 8% compared to March 2022.
The annual rate of inflation stood at 3.97% in March, up from 3.87% in February.
A rise in the goods and services tax from 6% to 8% took effect on 1 January. But food prices were relatively unaffected as staples such as rice, flour and sugar as well as some fruits and vegetables are exempt from the sales tax.
In monthly terms, the CPI for all groups was up 0.38% from 0.22% in February.
In March, the highest spike in prices was recorded for fruits at 4.77% and electricity at 3%.
Customs collected MVR330 million (US$21 million) as revenue in March, up 3% from the same period last year as imports increased by 10%. Exports grew by 51% compared to March 2022 as frozen skipjack tuna worth MVR224 million was shipped overseas.
