MALE, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Maldives' official reserve assets rose above 1 billion U.S. dollars for the first time in recent years in January 2026, PSM News, the Maldives' state media, said on Saturday.

Quoting the latest data released by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), PSM said the January figure marked the highest level for official reserves since 2020, when reserves received temporary support from a 400-million-dollar currency swap facility with the Reserve Bank of India and a 250-million-dollar sovereign bond issuance.

Usable reserves, a key measure of immediate foreign exchange liquidity, also rose to 301.4 million dollars in January, up 25 percent from 244.1 million dollars a month earlier, MMA data shows.

The improvement is mainly due to the sustained recovery of the tourism sector, the Maldives' main source of foreign exchange, and the tighter implementation of the Foreign Exchange Act, which took effect in January 2025, PSM said. ■