Is Maldives going down Sri Lanka's path?: Concern on Budget Deficits

Abstract

Besides 2017 and 2018, Sri Lanka’s annual Primary Balance has consistently been a deficit with 2021 reporting the largest deficit of 6 percent. Maldives follows a consecutive negative trend in their Primary Balance with the largest deficit of 21 percent in 2020. These numbers signal a similar path to Sri Lanka for Maldives in terms of their Primary Balances. When looking at Budget Balances, Sri Lanka and Maldives appear to be following a similar trend. Both countries exhibit a similar trend of having large deficits. For both Maldives and Sri Lanka the largest deficits are seen in 2020, 23% for Maldives and 13% for Sri Lanka. Running persistent deficits would add a significant debt burden to the economy as they need to be financed by borrowing making it vulnerable to an economic crisis.