Mauritius’ central bank pledged to defend the rupee against “unpatriotic” speculation causing the currency to weaken. The bank noted that it had intervened in the FX market at 46.5 per USD on March 17 and 46.0 per USD on Friday. The bank further signaled that any rate above 46 rupees would be excessive volatility. It plans to continue intervening in the FX market to support the rupee, which has slumped 5.6% against the USD due to increased speculative activity since the end of January.