India-Mauritius - A Special Relationship

The Indo-Mauritian relationship is a special one. Both Culture and History have coalesced to forge singular bonds, assiduously knitted over millenniums, to unfold a unique blend of camaraderie, entente and trust.  These have been consolidated by regular exchanges between our two people and frequent visits of high dignitaries. One of the distinguished visitors even eulogised Mauritius as a "Great Little Country".

Forex saga :a tale of three argentiers

(Published in Le Mauricien, Dec 1999)

There has been three exposé in the press on the present foreign exchange situation-from the two ex-finance Ministers, Messrs Sithanen and Bheerfick and from the incumbent, Mr Bunwaree. Let me try to dissect these explanations to single out the wheat from the chaff.

The credit squeeze in the money market ?

The recent measure by the Bank of Mauritius (BOM) of an upper limit of 70% in the credit to deposit ratio of commercial banks is an attempt by the monetary authorities to regain control of the money market after a too rapid relaxation of the quantitative controls in July 1997. It also reasserts the determination of BOM, since October 1998, to reorient monetary policy towards the exclusive goal of curtailing inflation.     

Theme: Competitiveness

 Over the last three decades, Mauritius has successfully transformed its monocrop sugar economy to a diversified one and achieved sustained growth.  The three main growth sectors have been sugar, manufacturing textiles and tourism.  The development of the services sector(namely freeport and offshore banking activities) is expected to stimulate growth in the future.