Strengthening pula spooks local tourism sector

The pula rose by 7.9 percent against the US dollar last year, although in the last month the greenback mounted a revival to end April with a 12-month loss of 6.7 percent. In January, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning announced that the pula would adopt a downward crawl of 0.30 percent, which, even though minimal, was interpreted by analysts as a signal that authorities felt the pula was overvalued.

The local tourism sector is heavily dependent on arrivals from the United States, a wealthy and sophisticated market that suits the national policy targeting “high value, low volume” tourists.