Mauritius has been classified as a high-income country for the first time.

The island nation is the second African state, after Seychelles, to hold that ranking.

The World Bank ranks nations according to whether they are high, upper-middle, lower-middle and low income. The ranking is based on gross national income (GNI) per capita (current US$), calculated using the Atlas method, which reduces the impact of exchange-rate fluctuations in cross-country comparisons of national incomes.

Erik von Uexküll, World Bank country representative for Mauritius, notes that the new classification is according to 2019 data, which does not yet reflecting the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is possible ‘that a strong recession this year due to COVID-19 would cause Mauritius to temporarily return to upper-middle income level next year once the 2020 data is considered’, as reported by the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The ranking is updated each year on 1 July, based on the previous year’s national account information.

21 July 2020
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