IMF Working Papers

Mauritius The Drivers of Growth—Can the Past be Extended?

By Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, Martin Petri

July 23, 2014

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Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, and Martin Petri. Mauritius The Drivers of Growth—Can the Past be Extended?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2014) accessed November 21, 2024
Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Mauritius’s economic performance has been called “the Mauritian miracle” and the “success of Africa” (Romer, 1992; Frankel, 2010; Stiglitz, 2011), despite difficult initial conditions that led a Nobel Prize Winner in economics to predict stagnation (Meade, 1961). We use growth accounting to analyze the sources of past growth and project potential ranges of growth through 2033. Growth averaged 4½ percent over the past 20 years. Our baseline suggests future growth rates around 3¼ percent, but growth could reach 4-5 percent with strong pro-active policies including (i) improving investment and savings rates; (ii) improving the efficiency of social spending and public enterprise reforms; (iii) investment in education and education reforms; (iii) labor market reforms; and (iv) further measures to reduce bottlenecks and increase productivity. With policies capable of generating 5 percent growth, Mauritius could reach high-income status in 2021, 4 years earlier than under the baseline.

Subject: Depreciation, Human capital, Labor, Labor force, National accounts, Production, Total factor productivity

Keywords: Africa, Capital share, Constant returns to scale, Depreciation, Depreciation rate, Factor input, Growth, Growth accounting, Human capital, Investment rate, Labor force, Labor market, Mauritius, Mauritius growth miracle, Physical capital, Policies Mauritius, Production function, Statistics Mauritius, Sub-Saharan Africa, Total factor productivity, Total factor productivity improvement, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    41

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

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  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2014/134

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2014134

  • ISBN:

    9781498392372

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941