Mauritius’s rupee weakened for the first time in three days as U.S. lawmakers struggled to reach an accord to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by an Aug. 2 deadline, curbing demand for riskier frontier-market assets. The currency depreciated as much as 0.2 percent to 28.10 per dollar and traded at 28.05 by 11:23 a.m. in Port Louis, the capital. Versus the euro, currency of the country’s main trading partner, the rupee weakened 1 percent to 40.7062. President Barack Obama warned yesterday of a “deep economic crisis” without a compromise to avert a U.S. debt default and called on lawmakers to put politics aside to reach a deal on a “balanced approach” to lifting the U.S.’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. House Speaker John Boehner said the president “wants a blank check” to continue spending. “The rate is being driven by international market forces and the focus is on U.S. debt,” Nitish Benimadhu, a foreign- currency and fund manager at Port Louis-based Anglo-Mauritius Financial Services Ltd., said by phone today. Sixty-seven percent of the Indian Ocean island nation’s import bill is denominated in dollars, according to Bank of Mauritius data. The buying price for the dollar ranged from 27.2389 rupees to 27.4013 rupees, with a selling price of 28.689 rupees per dollar, according to indicative rates on Bank of Mauritius’s website. To contact the reporter on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis via Johannesburg at 1933 or gbell16@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

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