Mauritius’s rupee appreciated for a second day versus the dollar as optimism grows that Greece will meet requirements for further aid. The currency strengthened by 0.2 percent to 28.65 per dollar at 11:50 a.m. in Port Louis, the capital, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Versus the euro, the rupee gained 0.6 percent to 39.1459. Greece made “good progress” in a second round of talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to stave off default, the EU said in a statement. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou holds a cabinet meeting today in Athens to press for accelerating budget cuts to ensure the country gets its next tranche of a rescue package, staving off default. “Markets are having a sense of deja-vu with regards to the Greek conundrum,” analysts at Mauritius Commercial Bank, the country’s largest lender by market value, wrote in an e-mailed note to clients today. “The next payment will be made as the systemic risks posed by the failure to do so are enormous, and could lead to a global slowdown in the best-case scenario, and a deep recession in the worst.” Mauritius, an open-market economy with a population of 1.3 million, is a net buyer of food and fuels, with 67 percent of its import bills denominated in dollars, according to Bank of Mauritius data. Europe is the Indian Ocean island nation’s main trading partner for tourism and manufactured goods, with 41 percent of foreign-currency income in euros. Buying prices for the dollar ranged from 27.7713 rupees to 29.9427 and the selling price dropped to 29.2572 compared with 29.2867 yesterday, according to exchange rates published today on the Bank of Mauritius 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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