Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has revealed the upturn in global oil prices and the marked improvement in fish exports, merchandise exports, consisting of domestic exports and re-exports increased by USD 62.1 million and totalled USD 318.3 million during 2017.
The major contributor to the growth in exports was the significant increase in domestic exports, coupled with a moderate growth in re-exports. Domestic exports, which consist almost entirely of fish exports, posted a remarkable growth of 43% during the year, a turnaround from a decline of 3% in 2016. This was attributed to the higher earnings from frozen skipjack tuna and frozen yellowfin tuna exports, which in annual terms registered significant increases of USD 40.1 million and USD 13.5 million, respectively, according to MMA.
MMA said the growth in such exports more than offset the decline in earnings from fresh or chilled skipjack and yellowfin tuna exports. With regard to other categories of fish exports, earnings from canned or pouched tuna rose considerably, owing to the increase in volume of such exports, reflecting higher global demand during the year.
However, export earnings from processed fish declined, mainly because of a decline in earnings from dried skipjack tuna, the largest component of the category. With regard to total re-exports, it registered a growth of USD 2.3 million during 2017. This was entirely due to the rise in the sale of jet fuel to aircraft at international airports.
Mirroring the increase in global oil prices, earnings from re-export of jet fuel posted a significant growth of USD 24.5 million during the year. However, the increase was partly offset by the decline in re-export of other items, primarily transport equipment and parts, mainly consisting of equipment imported for the construction of the China Maldives Friendship Bridge and other infrastructure projects. This reflected the base effects of the higher re-exports of such items in 2016, according to MMA.