News Desk
MALE’ — Expatriate workers in the Maldives sent $661 million out of the country last year, up from $621.8 million in 2024, according to the Maldives Monetary Authority’s annual report.
The $39.2 million increase, roughly 6.3 per cent, was driven in part by a shift toward official transfer channels. As regulatory oversight of remittances has tightened, more workers are using licensed financial institutions rather than informal methods, the MMA said.
Of the total, licensed remittance companies handled 139,000 transactions worth $168 million, an 8 per cent rise on the previous year. Of that $168 million, $157.5 million represented net outflows to workers’ home countries. The remaining transfers went through commercial banks, which are counted separately and not included in the remittance company figures.
The Maldives hosts a large expatriate workforce, concentrated mainly in tourism, construction and domestic work. Remittances represent a significant and consistent outflow of foreign currency from an economy that depends heavily on dollar earnings from tourism.
The MMA did not comment on the pressure these outflows place on foreign currency reserves, though the figures come at a time when the government has been focused on shoring up those reserves following years of dollar shortages in the local banking system.
