The Illusion of Growth

The 5.3% percent growth rate Mauritius clocked in 2008 has to be taken with a big grain of salt. See, that's expressed in rupees and the picture changes quite a bit when you instead compute it in USD: -5.15%. That relatively large contraction is due to the 10% we lost with respect to the American currency. Singapore's corresponding number is 1.24% or a little better than the 1.1% it made in local terms thanks to an almost stable exchange rate with the USD in 2008.