In an official communique issued on 1 July 2020, the World Bank has recognized Mauritius as a High-Income country for the first time. Mauritius is now the second country in Africa, after the Seychelles, to join the league of high-income countries.

The classification is based on the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita for 2019 which has been calculated using the Atlas method but does not factor in the economic impact of the Covid 19. The Atlas method makes use of the Atlas conversion factor to reduce the impact of exchange rate fluctuations in the cross-country comparison of national incomes. The GNI of Mauritius for 2019 stood at USD 12,740 while the threshold of for high-income countries as of July 2020 is >USD 12,535.

The Covid 19 pandemic crisis has impacted the lives and livelihoods of people around the world and has dented the global economy. It is therefore possible that the recession emanating from the crisis will cause Mauritius to temporarily return to upper-middle income level in the next round of assessment. Nevertheless its current status of a high-income economy is a huge milestone for the country especially amidst difficult global conditions and the multiple challenges encountered in the past year.

Since its independence in 1968, Mauritius has successfully managed to diversify its economy – its transformation over the years has largely been driven by innovation and productivity growth through education and the up-skilling of its workforce. The GNI remains an important indicator of economic development for any country but consideration should also be given to how the income is being distributed among its population. Whilst striving to turn its ambition of becoming a high-income country into a reality, the government has also been implementing social measures such as the negative income tax and the minimum wage, to ensure a fairer distribution of income in the population. A marked progression is expected to have been achieved by Mauritius on the Gini Coefficient, an index used to measure social inequality, which stood at 36.8 in 2017 and is now predicted to be around 34 in 2020 by the World Bank.

To access the World Bank country classifications, please click Here