By
Vishal Bhidu
As a jurisdiction, Mauritius has maintained resilience with GDP Growth at 3.2 percent, according to the official estimates in relation to 4.9 percent in 2025. A performance attributed to positive outcome spread across key sectors such as financial and business services, information and communication, transportation and storage, arts, entertainment, among others. This is according to the latest SBM Insights issued in March 2026.
In light of unforeseen circumstances such as the current conflict across the Middle East, the SBM has forecasted the baseline scenario for the jurisdiction, assuming a likely outcome with real GDP poised to be at 3.2 percent in 2026.
The report, “Lighting the Way to a bright future,” takes into account pressure and economic risks posed to Mauritius that will depend on the magnitude and duration of the crisis, encompassing supply shocks. In context, the baseline scenario takes into account several underlying factors, such as the international oil markets facing major disruptions during a limited time period spanning over four to six months, with no significant impact on production assets and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Assuming the latter is operational in a sustainable manner, leading to the average oil prices for 2026, slightly higher than the 2025 figures.
The report also hints at its baseline scenario where growth for 2026 would take place on the back of resilient sector performances such as tourism, financial and business services, and ICT sectors, buoyed by their competitive headway, while the construction business is expected to pick up amidst investment projects.
In the forward, Group Chief Strategy Officer at SBM Holdings and Chief Editor of SBM Insights, Nuvin Balloo was quoted, “As Mauritius deals with structural constraints and navigates an increasingly ambiguous global landscape, it is essential to boost its fiscal space and support its sound fundamentals, alongside upholding its investment grade credit rating and safeguarding the White Listing assigned to it by the FATF, the EU and the OECD. Beyond those imperatives, Mauritius is called upon to chart out a long-term policy blueprint that will forge its future, backed by forward-leaning and far-reaching structural transformations and economic reforms that are mainly grounded on home-grown ingenuity, citizen empowerment, and smart ideas.”
He further added: “We aim to strive in combating the status quo, strengthen the adaptability to change, and anchor the economy towards a trajectory of high growth, inclusive and sustainable. In short, our collective ambition to bring the economy closer to its Pareto Front, the ultimate objective, resides in enhancing the quality of life of every citizen, indiscriminately.
Vision 2050: A long-term roadmap ushering in future
Setting forth Vision 2050, the Government has shown its ambition in reflecting collective aspirations of the population, together with the preparedness to meet global challenges and tap into emerging opportunities.
Vision 2050 aims to charter a medium and long-term roadmap for the jurisdiction, designed to define what the country aims for the future in terms of defining goals and development as priorities in making the shift towards an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future.
It enumerates on three key pillars for national development, such as prosperity, sustainability, and inclusion, enshrined in this ambitious document. The aim is:
• To join the league of advanced economies by 2050 by rightly embracing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and digital services.
• To uplift the country from an upper-middle-income to a high-income country with an inclusive and sustainable agenda.
• To transition the economy to a high-wage model, creating resilient jobs in FinTech and medical science, amongst others.
• To open new engines of growth such as AI, digital services, blue economy, renewable energy, the creative industry, advanced manufacturing, green and sustainable finance, and high-value tourism.
A meaningful step formulated in Vision 2050 is to emerge as a greater and stronger nation to deliver the frame of reference and set a clear direction for the country, to achieve by mid-century, in adhering to international practices to strategise for the future.
A parallel is drawn to the Viksit Bharat document, aiming to transform India into a developed entity characterised by economic prosperity, social advancement, environmental sustainability, and effective governance.
India as a nation aspires to emerge as a leading global power, in offering its citizens high standards of living and ensuring inclusive, equitable growth centred on five broad themes. They are:
Empowered Indians; Thriving and Sustainable Economy; Innovation, Science and Technology; Good Governance and Security; and India in the World.
With a sharp focus on self-reliance, innovation, and citizen empowerment, Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has stressed India’s journey from a nation dependent on others to a globally confident, technologically advanced, and economically self-resilient country.
Strategic key pillars to transform the reform agenda
Set against multifaceted challenges facing the jurisdiction, the SBM Insights report has called for the need to pursue the four transformational pillars. They are: High Income Economy; Tech-led Country; Sustainable Nation; and Inclusive Society.
Spread across those pillars, the report advocates for the country to set a high-level list of measures guided by the country’s realities, international empirical evidence, advocated by agencies such as the World Bank, UN and OECD, as well as strategic plans and visions, adopted by global nations, suited to local realities and specificities.
A need to broaden and diversify the economic space, preserve and buttress the competitiveness and value-creating capabilities across economic sectors, such as tourism, ICT, financial, and business services. In the same vein, there is a need to reinvent business models and main growth anchors, aligned to market trends and realities, while supporting the development of tourism as a major growth engine.
At the same time, the report postulates a need to tackle several challenges such as dealing with labour shortage to keep pace with market demand and quality requirements, a need in adapting to evolving clients needs, that has to a certain increasing extent been geared towards preference for sustainable destinations, confronting impact of climate change, smartly capitalising on the national air access strategy, propel the MIFC into a more advanced growth strategy, with committed fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to spur private investment.
A need to actively positioning Mauritius as a jurisdiction of substance and a gateway for investing into Africa on the basis of an attractive and diversified value proposition, heterogeneity of markets, a strong network of tax treaties and investment promotion and protection agreements, a stimulating regulatory environment, compliance with international norms and standards, clear/coherent strategic communication campaigns to improve brand image and visibility.
Moreover, it is desirable to reinforce the AML/CFT risk-based supervision of cross-border activities and capital flows with proper oversight on financial players’ exposure to non-residents and global business companies domiciled in Mauritius and managing any spillover impacts across different economic layers. Thus, contributing to mitigating any macro-financial risks and promoting the transparency of business activities amidst a fast-changing global environment.
In context, the SBM remarks, such endeavours will deliver a strong impetus to preserve the White Listing of the jurisdiction, as assigned by the FATF, the EU, and the OECD.
Financial, telecommunications to foster economic transformation
The services sector, in particular, knowledge-intensive sectors such as telecommunications and financial services can play a pivotal role to help steer economic transformation by offering essential productive inputs, supporting critical physical and digital infrastructure, and fostering innovation.
Harnessing such opportunities calls for significant investment, new skills, and better technological access, along side gender inclusive approaches to help ensure women’s full participation.
There are also medium and long-term strategic priorities for the jurisdiction, such as a need to cement connectivity to key markets, services, and targeted by deepening diplomatic and trading partnerships.
A need to upgrade transport and logistics infrastructure, further modernise the port with improved cargo handling and customer facilities, while reinforcing shipping and air freight capacity, investing in digital connectivity avenues, and, at the same time, there is a need to strengthen export capacity on local shores.
As the global economy has reached a critical point in time, with the jurisdiction reeling under the impact of economic headwinds, what can take it ahead is a clear-cut ambition ushering in the future.
The SBM Insights rightly points out the high ambition in making the shift towards becoming a high -status nation, heralded by a productive and competitive economy pertaining to an impressive GDP growth, that will depend on a continued execution of a well-engineered structural reforms, targeting buttressing private investment and steering economic transformation.
