A reply :
1. We were one of the two to three Sub-Saharan economies that had recourse to a range of UNCONVENTIONAL FINANCING MEASURES and we are still paying for its disastrous impact on the economy.
IMF had cautioned us then that “Direct central bank lending to the government should be a last-resort mechanism, considered only where it is not possible to obtain enough financing from any other source."
"Moreover, it should have been on market terms, restricted in time, and with an explicit repayment plan over the medium term. Otherwise, the monetizing of deficits risks undermining the long-term independence and effectiveness of the central bank, since concerns may arise about its ability to keep inflation under control in the future. This would unanchor inflation expectations and add to pressures on the currency like in Zimbabwe."
2. Among the Emerging Market and Middle-Income Economies(EMMEs), we registered elevated double-digits budget deficit levels while the EMMEs’ average level of the overall fiscal deficit was -5.0% of GDP in FY 2020 and for the Sub-Saharan African countries, the average level was around 7% percent of GDP for the region as a whole. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), we were thus ranked as the worst performer and among the top three countries that registered the highest fiscal deficits in FY 2020.
3. We entered the COVID-19 crisis with significantly less fiscal space and this had hampered our capacity to raise additional spending to mount a better crisis response without having recourse to money printing policies that derailed the economy through accelerated depreciation and inflation and even jeopardising the recovery and affecting social stability.
4. While most countries recovered rather rapidly from the Covid crisis, it took us some four years to recover to the 2019 GDP level (at constant prices).
At the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, we had elevated debt and weak growth prospects; now the Jugnauth regime has legated us a markedly worse position than at the beginning of the crisis , not far from the Mugabe model and at the mercy of Moody’s.
Nous n'avons pas de leçons à recevoir d’eux, least of all from Mr Obeegadoo.
“Moustas est venu révéler des choses qui, si elles sont fondées, indiquent des dérives graves…” This comment of his is quite revealing,…an own goal ! Perhaps , now that he is realising why at the recent gathering in Port Louis against the BRP measure, some of protestors were shouting " Jugnauth voler, MSM voler !" , should we expect another political switch -joining the new chatwas- from our turncoat "par excellence", who wanted to do politics differently (sic) ?
To conclude , Rs 7 million spent by our ex-Minister of Tourism on missions/travel abroad without much of a positive impact on the tourism sector-may per diem fin marché…..á la konpétans !
