By Villen Anganan
PORT LOUIS (Reuters) – Mauritius President Prithvirajsing Roopun appointed Rama Krishna Sithanen as governor of the central bank on Friday, following a general election last weekend that was won by an opposition political alliance lead by Navin Ramgoolam.
The Alliance du Changement (ADC) coalition won a landslide 60 of the 62 national assembly seats with 62.6% of votes in Sunday’s ballot, securing Ramgoolam a fourth stint as prime minister.
Sithanen was widely credited with ushering in sweeping financial reforms to diversify the island state’s economy when he served as finance minister from 2005 to 2010, during Ramgoolam’s second term.
Sithanen’s priorities would be to stop the depreciation of the rupee currency and tackle the foreign currency shortage on the foreign exchange market, he told Reuters by telephone.
