Mauritius – COVID-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Programme

The proposed COVID-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Program is in response to a request from the Republic of Mauritius (RoM) dated 18 March 2020 and will be applied for one year, from June 2020 to June 2021. The design of the program considered good practice principles on conditionality. This is a loan to the Republic of Mauritius (RoM) in the amount of EUR 188 million from the COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF), approved by the board on April 8th, 2020. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis which can potentially plunge Mauritius into an economic recession due to its status as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) and its dependence on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), travel and tourism. The first three cases of COVID-19 were announced on 18 March 2020 and they were all imported. By 6 April 2020, locally transmitted cases had increased to 133 (54.5% of all cases). The purpose of the Program is to support national measures in response to COVID-19, and mitigate its health, social and economic impacts. It has three mutually reinforcing components (i) Strengthening health systems; (ii) Protecting livelihoods, income security, and access to essential goods and services; (iii) Building a resilient private sector for economic recovery.