Mauritania: Recent Economic Developments

This paper reviews economic developments in Mauritania during 1996–99. Mauritania continued its ambitious program of economic reforms in 1995–97. The government exercised firm control over public expenditures and ran a fiscal surplus in both 1996 and 1997. The decline in broad money in 1995–96 was reversed in 1997, reflecting increased confidence in ouguiya-denominated assets, in part owing to the implementation of financial market reforms. These policies and reforms resulted in sustained GDP growth, which averaged 4.6 percent annually over 1995–97, that is, 1.8 percent in real per capita income growth.