Mauritius 2010 current account deficit widens to 8.5 pct/GDP

Mauritius' current account deficit widened to 8.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2010 from a year earlier, pulled by a higher deficit in the merchandise trade account, the central bank said on Monday.

It said in a statement there was a marked increase in the trade deficit coupled with a lower surplus on current transfers, which were to some extent mitigated by higher surpluses on both the services and income accounts.

"Provisional estimates of the balance of payments show that the current account deficit for the year 2010 increased by 4.535 billion rupees to 25.371 billion rupees," the Bank of Mauritius said in a statement.

"As a percentage of GDP at market prices, the current account deficit in 2010 widened to 8.5 percent from 7.4 percent in 2009," it said in a statement.

"On a balance of payments basis, nominal exports grew, year-on-year, by 11.6 percent while imports (fob) increased at a higher pace of 15.0 per cent in 2010," it said.

One of Africa's most stable and prosperous economies, the Indian Ocean island expects its economy to have grown 4.2 percent in 2010 and the International Monetary Fund sees growth above 4 percent again in 2011.