as well as the rising global commodity prices is reminiscent of the fact that nowadays, no economy is sheltered from shocks stemming from outside its territory. while we all recognise that globalisation has provided for great opportunities, well, it has also brought with it challenges. right now, as you are all aware and as being widely broadcast, food and other commodity - driven pressures which also include the high oil prices are impacting on headline inflation across the world. mauritius does not stand immune to these developments. being a net food importer, the high food bill is already impacting on our current account. in addition, over half of the domestic inflation rate results from food inflation. the situation which we are facing is not unique to mauritius. other economies are also witnessing this phenomenon. in such an environment, it is vital that all economic players in our economy tune in their concerted efforts and it is expected that the gains from the recent appreciation of the mauritian rupee be fully passed on to consumers. as you are aware, we have since november 2007 been purchasing a large amount of foreign currencies on the domestic foreign exchange market. simultaneously we have been issuing our own instruments, bom bills, to sterilise the rupee counterparts. you will realise that these foreign currencies are invested abroad at interest rates currently prevailing on international markets. the bom bills are issued at a much higher rate. recently some enterprises have been complaining of lesser profits being realised. we, at the bank of mauritius, are very much concerned about the performance of the enterprises operating in the real sector. you will recollect our first meeting with mauritius export association ( mexa ) in the first week of january 2008 where in an attempt to help those enterprises, we offered to buy foreign exchange from them. we had a second meeting with them in the first week of april 2008 and we reiterated our support. our decision to reduce the key repo rate at our last mpc meeting was also, to some extent, to alleviate the costs of funds of exporting enterprises. it may be reminded that all our foreign transactions are not denominated in one currency only. we also gain when we deal in a currency which is depreciating vis - a - vis the rupee. with the restructure and re - engineering which has taken place at the bank, the bank is now more apt to meet those challenges. we thank you very much indeed for your presence this morning and wish you a very pleasant stay

yandraduth googoolye : payment and settlement systems in mauritius address by mr yandraduth googoolye, first deputy governor of the bank of mauritius, at the opening ceremony of the comesa regional payment and settlement system ( repss ), bank of mauritius, port louis, 14 april 2008. * * * it is a great pleasure and privilege for me to welcome you all to the bank of mauritius on this opening ceremony of the comesa regional payment and settlement system ( repss ) pilot training workshop which the bank is indeed very pleased to host. this training programme is a joint effort of the comesa clearing house and the bank of mauritius, in conjunction with cma small systems ab, the service provider selected by the comesa council of ministers for the delivery of a turnkey operation for repss, and fin - x, comesa ’ s swift service bureau and responsible for the regional payment and settlement system operations centre at orange in johannesburg and the swift representative. the governor would have very much wished to be here but he had to attend the imf spring meetings which is attended by governors around the world. in that context, the governor met the chairman of the sadc central banks governors, governor tito mboweni and in the light of the political problems which the comoros is now facing, it has been decided in common accord with the governor of the central bank of comoros and other governors that the next meeting of the aacb will be held in mauritius in june this year. may i also extend a very warm welcome to participants from member states of the comesa who are all concerned and committed to bring about improvements in cross - border retail payments in the comesa region. a special welcome to mr alexey nazarov – managing director of cma small systems ab ; mr willie stoman – managing director of fin - x and mr ekkehard starck – senior business manager, market infrastructures & payments at swift brussels. our distinguished visitors will also address you during this ceremony. we should recall that in its efforts to modernise the financial infrastructure for the benefits of free trade to flow in the region, this project, originally named as the comesa payment and settlement systems – compass was initiated in 1999 and saw the active participation of mr ali mansoor, the present financial secretary who was seconded by the world bank to the comesa clearing house for two years. during his tenure at the comesa and in the context of the restructuring of the clearing