Issues That Will Decide the General Election

Two Years of Lepep And No Miracle in Sight

As expected. They haven't taken the one decision which would have brought some sanity back: end the trickle-down economics started by Sithanen with the blessing of Ramgoolam. We're not only closing 2016 with the 6th consecutive annual growth rate under 4% -- half of the 8% promised -- and a GDP shortfall of nearly a trillion rupees but the economy was thrown into a recession in dollar terms in 2015. Indeed our economic output in USD contracted by about 10% last year from 12.5 billion to 11.3 billion. The decline was even steeper in the first quarter of 2015 which coincided with the first three months of the return of Basant Roi to the BOM. We knew the guy was obsessed with depreciation: the British Pound was worth an extra Rs23 at the end of his first stint. Now one of his recent statements seem to imply that our currency should be set at a level that allows the weakest of our exporters to break-even.

Many Lepep mams have already vire and are cursing that it's our worst government ever. Which would explain the increasingly large crowds turning out to hear Ramgoolam score some easy points. Can we blame them when a Minister -- who is probably mad that February 1st is a public holiday -- has proposed the following trade-off to us voters: food or sand? Or another one who wants to sell the CWA because he doesn't like its hotline? The trouble is that these toxic dynamics were set in motion by Ramgoolam ten years ago. And there's little he's said during the past two years that makes him a credible alternative to lead the country again.

DSK Explains Brazilian Resilience

As a combination of three factors in a press communique released 2 days ago:

1. Fiscal responsibility
2. Inflation targeting
3. Flexible exchange rate

Would Ali Mansoor kindly explain to us how we've been doing on these since he was given the job of Financial Secretary by his university buddy 5 years ago?

Head To Bank of Baroda if You Need To Buy ZAR

They were selling South African notes at Rs4.40 each according to data from the BOM's page. That would be 8 cents less than MPCB. If you wanted to convert ZAR into rupees then you should have gone to Afrasia Bank which was offering Rs220 more for every 1,000 Rands than Thomas Cook.

The latter had the worst spread on the market at 13.23%: that's twice more than Afrasia's.

Save some bucks: shop around. And tell you friends about it on Facebook.

Dealing in USD Notes Improves Marginally

4 short days after, the difference between the best and worst deal to sell USD has collapsed by 21% (Rs250) to Rs928. That's because Shibani is giving 25 cents more for each of your dollars. And that has reduced its spread, still the largest on that BOM's page though, by 150bps to 7.87%.

Standard Bank still has the best deal for your dollars while Forex Direct will get more dollars for your rupees. The latter has also joined Africa's biggest bank as the place with the smallest spreads.

Best Places To Deal in USD Notes

If you wanted to sell USD1,000 yesterday then you should have headed to Standard Bank which was offering Rs32.68 for each dollar. That would have put Rs1,178 more in your pocket than if you had visited a Shibani Finance Foreign Exchange counter (we are assuming there are no service charges or that they are the same across dealers).

If you were into buying a thousand bucks instead then it would have been wiser to bring Rs34,080 to Forex Direct. If you wanted to buy them at the MPCB they would have cost you Rs870 more.

Standard Bank had also the smallest spread on USD notes: Rs1.63. Shibani had the largest at almost Rs3.

You can access all the rates in one page from the BOM's website.

Isn't this something l'ACIM or the ICP should have on a blog everyday to help citizens? The Competition Commission should also track the spreads to bring them within international levels.