Mauritius: steady growth, with financial services doing more of the work

Real GDP in Mauritius rose 3.5 per cent in 2025, according to the National Accounts Estimates that Statistics Mauritius released on 30 September 2026. The June Budget Speech had put the figure at 3.2 per cent. These are estimates and may move again. For 2026 Statistics Mauritius forecasts 3.0 per cent, with nominal GDP rising from Rs 810.3 billion to Rs 873.1 billion.

The shape of the economy

Wholesale and retail trade is the largest sector, at 14.1 per cent of gross value added in 2025. Financial and insurance activities come next at 11.7 per cent, with manufacturing close behind at 11.5 per cent. Then accommodation and food services at 6.9 per cent, transport and storage at 6.4 per cent, construction at 5.2 per cent, and information and communication at 4.6 per cent.

Financial and insurance activities grew 5.1 per cent in real terms in 2025. Statistics Mauritius expects the sector to supply 0.5 percentage points of the 3.0 per cent forecast for 2026, more than any other. Investment in fixed capital came to 21.0 per cent of GDP in 2025.

Investment flows

UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2026 puts foreign direct investment into Mauritius at USD 804 million in 2025, against USD 681 million in 2024, with an inward stock of USD 9.0 billion. Those figures measure investment into the Mauritian economy. The much larger flows that pass through Mauritius-based global business companies on their way to other countries are a different series, and should not be read into these.

What it means for a business deciding where to base itself

For a holding company or fund, the point is stability. An economy expanding at around 3 per cent a year, with a financial sector expanding faster than the whole, is one in which the regulator, the banks and the professional firms a global business company depends on are investing rather than retrenching. The next release is due on 22 December 2026, and will show whether the 3.0 per cent forecast holds.