A leftist turn ?

Now that the dust is allowed to settle after days of intensive heckling and the media barrage that has been focussed on the demand for land and for new energy deals from the  MSPA, we will have clearer idea where the government stands on reforms that the country badly needs.  Is the recent aggressiveness of one of the two camps - the “gradualists-leftists” as opposed to the “ neo-liberals”- just a populist showcase or is it that the political pendulum has started to swing to the left -a genuine effort towards a leftist turn in the  reform programme.? 

Moody’s Current Credit Ratings: Is Mauritius “fully fit” for an upgrade ?

Moody’s Investors Service was with us again this week busy taking a closer look at some of our main macroeconomic and financial indicators before making a final decision on whether or not to downgrade us in their rating. On 8 August 2007, Moody’s Investors Service put the Baa1 for a local currency (stable outlook) issue and Baa2 (negative outlook) for a foreign currency loan on review for a possible downgrade because of the increased risk to the size and maturity structure of the government debt as a result of rising domestic interest rates.

Opening the Pandora’s Box

In the last edition of this newspaper, the topic of the day – “MAAS: Solidarity or Greed?; The Land Imbroglio; Sugar Industry: Sectoral interests v/s national interest; Land Monopoly; and 50% in the sugar industry” -- has spread all over the place marginalizing to some extent the equally emotionally loaded subject “De la femme coolie a la femme de tête” of the talented  Shakuntala Boolell. Surprisingly a related issue -- the successful historical mobilization of Creoles by the Federation des Creoles Mauriciens, led by Père Jocelyn Grégoire -- was blatantly ignored, but these seemingly unrelated developments have a common thread.

The framework of Monetary Policy

In the context of the memorial lectures at the Bank of Mauritius (BOM) this week and the launching of monetary policy challenge and financial literacy program, I thought fit to try my hand at something slightly more academic and also to clear out some of the inconsistencies that have appeared in the analysis and comments of the few, that just because they are constantly in the spotlight, who believe that they can get away with their outdated simplistic Monetarist/Keynesian dichotomy.

A need for thinkers

Let me first of all give you a glimpse of the travails of my friend, Papy, one of those top foreign graduates imbued with the zeal to set their mark at an early stage in their career. I still recall that the last time he was given the assignment of drafting a speech for his Boss, it surprisingly received an unexpected forward thrust, without the customary tiring hurdles and the maze of hierarchical hiccups, before landing promptly on his boss’s desk.

Poverty: Stand up and Speak Out

“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age…. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty."- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Poverty Alleviation – a community-based participatory approach

Mauritius growth performance has brought significant welfare gains to the population. Yet a small but significant proportion seem to be benefiting the least from the economic and social progress and many pockets of poverty of worrisome magnitude in some suburban and coastal regions have surfaced.