Mauritius’s rupee is heading for a second week of declines versus the euro, the currency of its main trading partner, as European leaders fail to present definite plans to curb the sovereign debt crisis. The currency depreciated as much as 0.8 percent, trading 0.7 percent weaker to 39.3889 per euro, by 11:58 a.m. in Port Louis. That brings the rupee’s weekly loss to 1.2 percent, extending last week’s 0.7 percent retreat. Versus the dollar, the rupee declined 0.3 percent to 29.30. Leaders of the 17-member single currency face investor pressure to announce a rescue plans for the zone’s banks before a Group of 20 summit in November. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in two days, their eighth in 20 months, to discuss of possibilities surrounding a Greek default. “The general mood remains ineluctably downbeat,” analysts at Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB), the country’s largest lender by market share, said in an e-mailed note to clients today. “Policymakers need to come up with a short-term plan to assuage markets, and a longer term one, aimed at fixing the structural inefficiencies of Europe’s recovery as well as thinking how they want the future Euro-zone to look.” Europe is the Indian Ocean island nation’s main trading partner, accounting for 62 percent of tourism arrivals in the January to August period, according to the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority. About 37 percent of Mauritius’s outstanding central government debt was euro-denominated as of June 2011, according to data from the finance ministry. Buying prices for the dollar ranged from 28.2454 to 28.4159 rupees and the selling price dropped to 29.7514 compared with 29.8313 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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