Mauritian Economy About A Quarter Less Open Than In 1990

That's according to the 'Openness' statistic published by the highly esteemed Central Statistical Office. Defined as the ratio of total merchandise exports and imports to GDP at market prices this yardstick was at 1.07 in 1990 and finished last year at 0.81. That's a decrease of 24.26% if your arithmetic is as rusty as mine and gives you an indication of the competitiveness of some of our exporters. I certainly hope that the Prime Minister and the Governor of the Central Bank use that statistic to ignore the sporadic whining of the usual cry babies from MEXA, JEC and the Ministry of Finance.