The Bank of Mauritius was established in September 1967 as the Central Bank of the country. It was modelled on the Bank of England and was, in effect, set up with the assistance of senior officers of the Bank of England. The then Premier and Minister of Finance, in his inaugural speech, stated that 'the time, however, had come for a rather more modern and sophisticated organisation to look after the broader technical aspects of our monetary affairs. It was logical, therefore, that a central bank should be established¿. The Bank of Mauritius was conceived along the line of the well-known Radcliffe Report as 'a separate organisation with a life of its own, capable of generating advice, views and proposals that are something more than a mere implementation of its superior's instructions.'