BLBG:Mauritian Rupee Falls to One-Week Low as EU Debt Curbs Risk
Mauritius’s rupee depreciated to a more than one-week low against the dollar on concern a debt crisis in Europe, the island nation’s biggest trading partner, will deepen, curbing demand for frontier-market assets.
The currency weakened as much as 1.1 percent to 28.2 per dollar and was trading 0.7 percent down at 28.1 by 12:15 p.m. in Port Louis. Versus the euro, the rupee depreciated by 1.2 percent to 40.0917.
Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service affirmed their AAA rating for the U.S., warning that downgrades were possible, if lawmakers fail to enact debt-reduction measures and the economy weakens. Spanish and Italian 10-year government bonds fell for a sixth straight day as Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen said the Mediterranean nations’ yields are “extremely worrying and scary.”
“Risk aversion has clearly increased amid growing concerns about the prospect of slow global economic growth and the persisting eurozone debt crisis,” Fabien Gebert, treasurer at GML, an investment group that says it’s the country’s biggest by revenue, wrote in e-mailed comments. “Our local economy, which is mostly driven by the export and the financial sectors, will be certainly impacted.”
Buying prices for the dollar ranged from 27.302 rupees to 27.467 rupees, with a selling price of 28.765 rupees per dollar, according to indicative rates published today on the Bank of Mauritius’s website.
Mauritius’s 38-member SEMDEX stocks index retreated for a second day, losing 0.5 percent to 2023.43, led by State Bank of Mauritius Ltd. (SBM), the country’s second-largest lender by market value.
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
