Comment: The Maldivian Economic Situation

Economics is often referred to as the ‘dismal science’, partly because it mostly concerns us when things start to go bad.

In this sense, economics is a lot like medicine or public health. And so it is highly appropriate that we start comparing economic remedies to medicine – like what the President did when he asked the donor community for a ‘spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down’.

You may find yourself asking what exactly is the sickness for which we have to take such a bitter medicine. So what I will attempt to do in this first part of the article is to try and explain to you exactly what happened to our economy – in as plain, jargon-free, language as I can.

In the second part of the article (to follow soon) I will try and show you the remedies we need to take and to shed light on how to avoid getting into a similar mess in the future.