Africa-Press – Mauritius. The World Bank’s threshold for categorizing a country as a high income country (HIC) is currently a Gross National Income per capita (GNI p. c. ) of USD 12,375.
It is adjusted slightly every year. Mauritius has previously set a goal of reaching HIC status by 2023. The latest Government programme 2020-24 refers to “achieving high in- come Mauritius” without mentioning the WB threshold or any target date.
As shown in the attached graphs, Mauritius has been progressing steadily towards the WB HIC threshold by generating growth in gross national income, averaging about 6% annually in nominal terms over the last decade.
Mauritius GNI p. c. (A) in 2018 stood at USD 12,050, on the basis of the World Bank’s Atlas method of conversion of Mauritian rupees to USD, using 3-year average exchange rates adjusted for differential inflation.
(A) stands for the Atlas method. GNI p. c.
(A) represented 97% of the WB threshold in 2018, increa- sing from 67% in 2011 and 85% in 2014.
The current Government has not contributed in any significant manner towards reaching HIC status, except by ensuring a modest annual increase in national income.
Higher economic growth would have already ushered Mauritius into HIC status. Seychelles became a HIC in 2014. In fact, GNI p. c. (A) remained stuck at 86% of the WB threshold in 2015 and 2016, partly because of the sizeable depreciation of the Mauritian rupee against the USD in 2015.
Subsequent rupee appreciation in 2017 and relative rupee stability in 2018 has imparted a new progression in GNI p. c. to reach 91% in 2017, and 97% in 2018. However, rupee depreciation in 2019 is likely to adversely affect the progression of GNI p. c. (A) in 2019.
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