The IMF has approved a 92.5-million-dollar bailout package to help the Maldives weather the global financial crisis, the international lender announced Saturday. The Indian Ocean nation's economy has been hard hit by a fall in tourism, lower fish exports and a drop in capital inflows, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in statement released in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.
"The programme aims to rebuild international reserves to prudent levels," IMF deputy managing director Takatoshi Kato said. The country's foreign reserves fell to over just two months of imports this year, the IMF said. Kato said the 36-month economic programme approved by the Washington-based lender on Friday aims to reduce the country's fiscal deficit and ensure that social programmes are not reduced. Since the 2004, the Maldives' external debt has soared to 91.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 55.2 percent in 2004.