Mauritian Plans $401 Million Program to Boost Economy After Euro Decline

Mauritian Finance Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced a 12 billion-rupee ($401 million) program to help the economy recover from the impact of a weaker euro, targeting Chinese and Indian tourists.

The plan will include a 1.5 billion-rupee loan to hotels at the benchmark interest rate to fund renovation, a bid to lure Chinese investment in hotels and almost double the number of visitors from India to an annual 115,000 by 2015, Jugnauth told reporters in the capital, Port Louis, today. The program will be financed by the country’s central bank and private companies.

A debt crisis in Europe has undermined growth in Mauritius’s main markets, and a weaker euro has affected tourism to the country. Two-thirds of visitors to the Indian Ocean island nation are from Europe, figures from the statistics office show. Mauritius earns most of its foreign currency from tourism and exports of sugar, clothing and textiles.

“The euro crisis has made us understand that we must diversify our economy and our markets,” Jugnauth said.

The plan would also support the sugar and textile industries, he said. The Bank of Mauritius would advance small sugar growers 80 percent of the estimated value of their first consignments exported, Jugnauth said.