Maldives’ tourism and construction sectors registered growth in the quarter three of the year, Central Bank, Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) figures have shown.
MMA’s Economic Bulletin for quarter three of this year showed that both the construction and real estate sectors observed growths in annual terms during the quarter, posting growths of 1.6 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively.
However, the import of construction-related items registered an annual decline of four percent, while commercial bank credit to the construction sector, registered an annual increase of 15 percent during the review quarter.
The growth in commercial bank credit was mainly owing to the rise in credit provided for property development projects, credit lent for renovation of resorts, construction of residential or housing projects, real estate of residential or housing projects and construction of commercial buildings.
According to MMA, total tourist arrivals increased in both annual and quarterly terms with tourist arrivals posting an increase in the quarter relative to the corresponding period of 2023, driven mainly by the increase in arrivals from China and the top source markets of Europe.
Accordingly, tourist arrivals totalled 476,498 in Q3 of 2024, registering a 10 percent growth when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2023.
One of the industries to post a decline is the fisheries sector, according to the report.
MMA said the activity in the fisheries sector is estimated to have contracted by 44.9 percent during Q3-2024 in annual terms, following an annual decline of 50 percent in the GVA of the sector in Q2-2024.
As for high frequency indicators, considerable declines were observed in both fish purchases made by fish processing companies and the volume of fish exports during the review quarter, MMA said.
The quarterly economic bulletin is compiled by MMA to cover developments in the domestic and international economy during each quarter. The analyses are based on information provided by relevant government authorities, commercial banks operating in the country, public enterprises and other private sector sources.