Governance & Institutions

The Maldives faces mounting pressures from foreign-exchange scarcity, rising living costs and structural economic weaknesses. Restricting the reporting of these signals will not make the underlying economic realities disappear.

The US dollar trades well above the Maldives’ official exchange-rate band. But what does the law actually permit? This article examines the MMA Act and money-changing regulations to ask a simple question: at what rate can an MMA-licensed money changer legally buy or sell US dollars?