Mauritius

Although known to Arab and Malay sailors as early as the 10th century, Mauritius was first explored by the Portuguese in the 16th century and subsequently settled by the Dutch - who named it in honor of Prince Maurits van NASSAU - in the 17th century. The French assumed control in 1715, developing the island into an important naval base overseeing Indian Ocean trade, and establishing a plantation economy of sugar cane. The British captured the island in 1810, during the Napoleonic Wars. Mauritius remained a strategically important British naval base, and later an air station, playing an important role during World War II for anti-submarine and convoy operations, as well as the collection of signals intelligence. Independence from the UK was attained in 1968. A stable democracy with regular free elections and a positive human rights record, the country has attracted considerable foreign investment and has earned one of Africa's highest per capita incomes. Recent poor weather, declining sugar prices, and declining textile and apparel production, have slowed economic growth, leading to some protests over standards of living in the Creole community.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Mauritian rupee (ISO code: MUR)
* Central bank discount rate: NA% (31 December 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 19.25% (31 December 2009 )
* Stock of money (M1): $1.68 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $6.914 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Mauritius: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	4 291 	4 583 	4 537 	4 767 	5 610 	6 386 	6 284 	6 507 	7 528 	9 320
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Mauritius: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	31.795	32.683	30.708	40.436	46.386	40.245	43.053	41.078	37.561	36.124
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Mauritius: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	20.894	20.855	19.200	19.221	20.800	20.773	21.045	20.481	19.471	21.748
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Mauritius: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04.	21.944	20.446	20.372	20.007	20.270	20.749	20.818	21.133	19.822	19.333
Debt to revenue (years) 	1.522 	1.567 	1.599 	2.104 	2.230 	1.937 	2.046 	2.006 	1.929 	1.661
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Mauritius on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Mauritius
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries