Wong Had Little to Do With Massive Amount of Poverty Created

Because he was not Finance Minister (FM) during any of the past eleven years when by far the most backward policies -- top tax rates were set too low and this broke the economy -- our country has known were implemented. For sure he has been a member of Cabinet during the last two and half years and as such has to accept part of the responsibility of the mess we're in because he could have vehemently asked for the end of the worship of the golden calf. Or at least distanced himself from it. Besides he was until recently a member of a party which has two interesting words in its name: Social Democrate.

XLD, Less So

Of course Xavier-Luc Duval (XLD) has a lot more to do with all the poverty created over the last decade because he was in the driver's seat for quite some time -- close to three years. But before we look into this let us not forget that poverty and the fight against it is heavily dependent on two quantities: the size of the economic cake (GDP) and how it is shared. From the 2012 household budget survey (HBS) -- which tells us about the sharing -- we know for a fact that the poorest two-tenths of Mauritian households saw their shares shrink by 10% to 15%. That's their smallest shares in at least two decades if you care to know. So we don't exactly get bonus points here. And what about GDP?

Eski Sithanen Enn Kosmar Pu Popilasyon?

Kestyon bet, non? Kosmar disparet ler uver lizye. Parkont lanfer so bann politik ekonomik kontinye fer u lavi vinn margoz pandan buku banane. Sithanen finn reponn a sa kestyon la resama avek kat kestyon. Anu analyz zot.

1. Linn dimande si pa enn politisyen de long dat kuma Ramgoolam ti pu pran enn risk vinn tir li depi kot liete si li tienn kosmar. Anfet Ramgoolam pe pran enn mari gro risk reprezant Sithanen kom minis de finans apre sa bann gro gro dal ki linn fane ant 2005 ek 2010 (nu tu finn remarke ki lalyans pep tuni pann gagn sa kantite plis dimunn ki lalyans papa piti dan miting nasyonal le duz oktob). Me kan de parmi trwa pli gran parti zwen sa amenn suvan bann gro skor dan elekyson: sa lalians la gagn lao 50 siez. Me pa tu letan (ek sa eleksyon ki pe vini la pa enn eleksyon ordiner ditu sa). An 2005 Ramgoolam ti gagn enn viktwar istorik ler enn gro parti ti bat 2 gro parti.

Anfet telma Sithanen ti fann dal kom minis de finans -- avek so kamwad Ali Mansoor -- ki Ramgoolam finn bizin ed Pravind Jugnauth eli dan No. 8, donn enn segon manda prezidan SAJ pu finalman fer lalians ek MSM ek pa donn tiket Sithanen. Parksi Ramgoolam ti kone si ti donn li tiket kitfwa Ramgoolam mem ti pwal manz feyaz. Sithanen pann gagn tiket ar Berenger usi byen ki Berenger -- papa kominalis syantifik sa do -- ti dir ki Ramgoolam finn fer fos ek bann Tamul-morisyen parski Berenger kone ki elekter pa kas latet ar kominote bann faner dal.

Sithanen Worried About Savings Rate, Again

So he said in an interview in the Mauritius Times about a week ago. It's not the first time he is worried about our savings rate. In 2005 he was worried sick about how much we were setting aside as a country. Just before starting his 'reforms'. It is a fact that over the 15 years before 2005, Mauritius enjoyed a healthy savings rate that averaged more than 26%. But between 2006 and 2010, that is a few years after bean-counting had taken centre stage, our savings rate had collapsed by 7.5% to an average of 17.1%. He didn't seem especially worried about that while he was in the driver seat. But he is now. Isn't that funny?

He's also worried about poverty and inequality. Let's look at how the poor's biggest enemy -- inflation -- behaved during the first few years of Paglanomics: average inflation was 70% higher than what it was under the government that preceded him!

The most recent HBS (Household Budget Surveys) numbers have also confirmed what anyone who understands the effect of reducing top tax rates has on inequality. And yet flattening the tax structure was the biggest plank of the economic mess of Mr. Sithanen. It didn't only make Mauritius more unequal: it also reduced our growth rate significantly.