PORT LOUIS: Mauritius has lowered its growth forecast for 2015 to 3.8 percent from its previous estimate of 4.1 percent due to a slump in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction sectors, Statistics Mauritius said on Tuesday.
A decline in fishing has hit agricultural output, a weaker performance from the textile sector has affected manufacturing figures and construction has suffered due to slower public infrastructure expansion, the statistics agency said.
The agricultural sector is expected to grow by 3.6 percent, instead of 6.1 percent as earlier predicted, while the manufacturing sector will grow at 1.9 percent instead of 2.5 percent as forecasted earlier, Statistics Mauritius said.
The construction sector will grow at 1.4 percent rather than 3.3 percent, it said.
Mauritius, which markets itself as a bridge between Africa and Asia, is trying to shift an economy mostly focused on sugar, textiles and tourism towards offshore banking, business outsourcing, luxury real estate and medical tourism.
Its textile sector has suffered from reduced exports, mostly to Europe, due to the depreciation of the euro.
The Indian Ocean island nation also said growth for the first quarter of the year was estimated at 3.7 percent, unchanged from the last quarter of 2014.
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