BoM : Rs 1.8 Billion Profits Soar Despite Challenges

The Bank of Mauritius (BoM) raked in Rs 1.8 billion in profits solely from its operations for the financial year ending on June 30, 2023, a significant increase from Rs 299 million in the previous year.

Domestically, domestic assets increased by Rs 6.8 billion thanks to joint operations with the Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC).

In its 56th annual report released May 7, including audited accounts of the regulatory institution, BoM Governor Harvesh Seegolam stated that “this result is mainly attributable to the bank’s strategic decision to realign its investment portfolio to take advantage of rising global interest rates. Furthermore, the restructured investment portfolio is ready to support the bank’s revenue generation capacity.”

The BoM’s revenue, excluding gains and losses, experienced growth, rising from Rs 4.3 billion to Rs 10 billion, an increase of Rs 5.7 billion.

This increase is attributed to the expansion of the hold-to-collect securities portfolio, which grew from Rs 49 billion in 2022 to Rs 96 billion in 2023.

On the other hand, BoM expenses increased, reaching Rs 4.7 billion compared to Rs 2 billion previously.

The report also revealed a series of changes and actions taken by the Central Bank at various levels.

Despite high inflation recorded during the first half of this financial year, Harvesh Seegolam maintained that the introduction of the new monetary policy framework has enabled the bank to address price stability challenges.

Regarding inflation, he pointed out that, as Mauritius is an open economy heavily reliant on imports, overall inflation increased significantly in the second half of 2022, reaching 10.8% by the end of December 2022.

The Governor explained: “However, decisive actions taken by the bank’s monetary policy committee played a crucial role.”

During the 2022/23 financial year, he also supported the introduction of a flexible inflation targeting framework in Mauritius, replacing the key repo rate with the key rate.

“This has also significantly reduced the level of excess rupee liquidity in the banking system,” he added.

In the foreign exchange markets, the Central Bank sold nearly Rs 4 billion from March 2020 to October 2023.

As for the MIC, a subsidiary of the BoM, it approved 50 projects worth approximately Rs 54 billion by the end of June 2023. A total of Rs 50 billion has already been disbursed.

Was the release of the BoM report in response to opposition MP Ehsan Juman’s questioning, which was on May 7 afternoon’s parliamentary question list?

Just minutes before asking why the BoM was not making its accounts public, the Central Bank website suddenly published the documents in the early afternoon. “What an example for a regulatory institution,” commented the MP.

Source: l’Express