Outstanding public and publicly guaranteed debt stood at MVR 148.9 billion (US$ 9.6 billion) or 124 percent of GDP in the second quarter of 2025, the finance ministry's quarterly bulletin showed. The largest portion of foreign debt is owed to the Indian Exim Bank (MVR 9.2 billion) and the Chinese Exim Bank (MVR 7.3 billion). Expenditure on loan repayment this year meanwhile reached MVR 3.9 billion as of August 28, exceeding the budgeted amount by MVR 76 million.
Shaahina Ali, the executive director of Parley Maldives, won the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, dubbed the "Nobel Prize of Asia," in recognition of her "unwavering commitment to protecting the marine ecosystem of the Maldives".
The unfinished STO city hotel in Hulhumalé was valued at US$ 20 million and swapped for a plot in phase two under an agreement reached with HDC.
The Maldives Islamic Bank announced the auction sale of the Galolhu Fanas house in Malé over the failure to repay a US$ 3.4 million loan backed by the mortgaged 1,469 square feet property on Ameenee Magu with the Odagella café. The loan had been taken by former MP Hussain Manik Dhon Manik's company to develop a resort on the Thaa Kalhudhiyafushi island leased by the MMPRC in 2015. The Bank of Maldives previously tried to sell the island to recover an unpaid US$ 10.6 million loan taken for the failed resort venture.
The civil court ordered the Malé City Council to pay MVR 125,841 as compensation to the company contracted to build a temporary local market in Villimalé when President Muizzu was the mayor three years ago. The contractor sought damages over delays and disruptions blamed on the council.
Police raided a house in Maafannu and seized 305 grams of drugs and MVR 41,500. Two Maldivian men, Abdul Ghani Abdul Majeed, 56, and Ahmed Ashraf, 27, were taken into custody.
President Muizzu returned after his official visit to China to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
