The rate of inflation for the twelve-month period ended January 2014 rose to 3.7% from 3.5% for the twelve-month period ended December 2013 even as year-on-year inflation surged from 4.0 per cent in December 2013 to 5.1 per cent in January 2014.

Bank of Mauritius has made public its monthly bulletin for end of January 2014, where it also indicated that Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased from 105.3 in December 2013 to 107.2 in January 2014.

The main contributors to the rise in the index between December 2013 and January 2014 were vegetables, which contributed 1.0 index point to the overall CPI increase.

Milk, traders’ rice, fish, other food products, workman’s wages, doctors’ fees, air tickets, private school and tuition fees and other goods and services, also registered an increase of 0.1 index point each.

Moreover, data on tourist arrivals for December 2013 showed an increase of 1.4% to 117,086 from 115,465 a year earlier. For 2013 as a whole, tourist arrivals increased by 2.9 per cent to 993,106 from 965,441 in the previous year.

Gross tourism receipts decreased by 3.7% from Rs 4.6 billion in December 2012 to Rs 4.44 billion in December 2013 whereas gross tourism receipts for the year 2013 fell by 8.6% to Rs 40,557 million, from Rs 44,378 million in 2012.

On the forex front, gross foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of Mauritius decreased slightly to Rs 102.73 million, from Rs 103.26 million as at end-December 2013.

The level of gross official international reserves of the country at January-end, based on the value of imports of goods, fob and non-factor services for the year 2012, represented 5.5 months of imports, compared to 5.6 months as at end December 2013.

Foreign Investment for January 2014 decreased by Rs 115.2 million compared to December 2013 when it stood at Rs 28.35 billion, whereas foreign currencies increased by Rs 3.09 billion in December 2013 compared to Rs 70.33 billion in November 2013.

Net foreign assets of depository corporations grew by Rs 20.38 million, or 5.4 per cent, from Rs 375.92 million at the end of November 2013 to Rs 396.30 million at the end of December 2013.

Finally, net foreign assets of the Bank of Mauritius increased by Rs 4.24 million to Rs 103.49 million at the end of December 2013 while net foreign assets of the other depository corporations rose by Rs 16.14 million to Rs 292.80 million at the end of December 2013.

Image (via Fotolibra): Bank of Mauritius has made public its monthly bulletin for end of January 2014, summarizing the main economic indicators for the island economy.

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