It’s all about Competitiveness

Mauritius has been successful in transforming its economy over the past four decades and achieved remarkable progress with sustained economic growth and significant improvement in the standard of living. It outperformed most other countries in the region and middle income and small island states as well. From 1968-2005, per capita GDP growth averaged 3.8% compared to 2.3% for all low and middle income countries.   Annual rates of growth have averaged over 5 per cent and per capita income now exceeds $6,000.

The Rupee’s Zigzag ?

On Tuesday 21 May 08, the Bank of Mauritius (BOM) intervened on the domestic foreign exchange market selling Rs 10 millions of US dollars at Rs 27.75, a move to restrain the rise of the rupee that touched new heights at the beginning of this month on the back of investors betting on continued capital inflows and some speculation that there will be little intervention to check rupee gains. (For the priority of priorities was to allow the rupee to appreciate brusquely to dent inflation.) Before that, on 2 May, the BOM reduced the key Repo Rate by 50 basis points to 8 per cent per annum.

Making Poverty History ?

Now that the show is over, our VIPs have gone back to their daily chores satisfied of their speeches, their deliberations, their exchanges ( skillfully circumventing the Zimbabwean cactus to others’ discontent) , their networking, their small, but however niggardly contribution ,be it on the Aid for Trade agenda ( Two years have gone by since Aid for Trade was launched at the WTO, we are still groping for a clearly accepted definition of what counts as an Aid for Trade initiative, with guidelines for accessing funds and effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms)