On February 2nd, at the conclusion of an IMF mission to Mauritius for the 2011 Article IV consultation, Fund staff gave a positive assessment of Mauritius's prospects and praised the fiscal and monetary policies adopted by the government and the Bank of Mauritius (BoM), the central bank. According to their press release, performance in 2010 had been better than expected, largely as a result of the authorities' prompt and comprehensive response to the global economic slowdown in 2008-10. The Fund appeared unconcerned over the recent escalation of inflation, which it said was due to exogenous factors that should not result in sustained inflationary pressures "with the appropriate monetary policy response". Current monetary policy appeared "broadly" appropriate, though a more concerted effort should be made to remove excess liquidity. The Fund also reminded the authorities of the need for proper policy co-ordination between the central bank and government. It did caution the government to maintain prudence in its capital spending and tight control on its loans to public enterprises.

The IMF's optimistic assessment was echoed in the annual Letter to Stakeholders from the BoM governor, Rundheersing Bheenick, published on January 27th. Mr Bheenick said that relatively strong economic performance would continue in 2011, the main sources of growth being transport and communications, construction, tourism and financial intermediation. He expressed concern about the impact of continuing uncertainty in the global economy and said that the time was right for Mauritius to reorient its economy away from slow-growing developed countries, mainly in Europe, towards fast-growing emerging markets, particularly in Asia.

Although Mr Bheenick expressed his personal satisfaction with the effect of the policies he had championed, he announced that he was instituting a review of the composition, methods and procedures of the BoM's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The MPC contains a number of independent members who have been critical of Mr Bheenick in the past and have used their powers to block some of his actions.