Fragile Times – The Monetary Policy Stance

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Mauritius unanimously decided to leave the key Repo Rate unchanged at 5.75 per cent per annum at its meeting of the 22nd June. Caught between rising inflationary expectations and excess liquidity accompanied by the prospect of slackening growth, the MPC thought it preferable to stay on the sideline for the moment quite unsure about inflation and growth outlook.

A More Proactive Competitive Strategy for SMEs

According to the Central Statistical Office (CSO), which conducts a census of small establishments employing less than 10 persons every five years, the contribution of the small units to value added is only 20% in 2007 compared to 18% in 2002. The structure of the Small and Medium Enterprises’ contribution to the economy has remained more or less the same.

Dismantling & Redesigning the TINA Policies

     Whatever little debate there was during the recent election, it centred mostly on the TINA (There Is No Alternative) policies; there was near unanimity against the neo-liberal and purely theoretical policies – the blind adherence to the Washington Consensus -- that were tried on the populace. The entire Mauritian political spectrum, including our Party Malin and popular sentiment unsettled by TINA policies (with the exception of the TINA stooges in the press that have over the last five years tried to build the TINAs and their friends as the most brilliant and super competent economists that ever walked on Mauritian soil) had expressed their discontent in various ways.