Mauritania expects 2011-12 growth above 5 pct

Reuters    Translate This Article
21 September 2011

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mauritania's economy will grow by 5.1 percent this year and this should accelerate to 5.7 percent in 2012, thanks to expanding exports of gold, copper, iron ore and oil, Mauritanian Central Bank Governor Sid'Ahmed Ould Raiss said on Wednesday.

But whether the West African country could sustain this pace of export-led growth would depend very much on whether Europe and United States, the main buyers of its minerals, overcome their current economic woes, Raiss told Reuters in Washington.

'If there is a global crisis, we're naturally going to feel it, because demand (for Mauritania's minerals) will fall and then things could get worse for us than for the larger countries,' he said, speaking on the sidelines of annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

In the last few years, Mauritania has joined the ranks of Africa's newest oil producers, but still imports fuel and food. The country experienced riots during the global food price crisis in 2008.

Raiss said the government of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who took power in a 2008 coup and then won an election in 2009, had managed to stabilize inflation thanks to effective but costly subsidies for food and fuel products.

Inflation was currently at 5.2 percent and was projected to remain around that level next year, Raiss said.

But in the face of fresh hikes in global food prices, he said Mauritania would be obliged to use its surplus mineral export revenues to maintain the subsidies targeted at the poorest sectors of the population, instead of being able to use the funds for other development needs.

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