South Africa’s load shedding crisis hurts Mauritius, trade down by Rs2Bn

The inability of South Africa’s main power producer Eskom to meet demand is not only hurting the continent’s most-industrialised economy but affecting manufacturers in Mauritius.

South Africa’s News24 cited Arif Currimjee, the outgoing chairman of the Mauritius Export Association (MEXA), as stating that chronic power shortages have reportedly reduced demand for Mauritian manufactured goods by South African retailers.

The outages pose a “downside risk” to growth in the industry after two straight years of recovery, he said.  

The power cuts, which intensified in 2022, have led to a slump in demand, increased costs and reduced trading hours for South Africa’s retailers.

Sales to South Africa of manufactured goods from Mauritius fell almost 29% to Rs2.07 billion in the final quarter of last year, compared with the prior three months.  

Source: news24