Visitors to Seychelles need not even stray from the beach for evidence of strains on the economy. Polite but stern notices at restaurants and cafés advise foreigners that they must pay in euros, not local currency, for their meals and drinks.

As tourists puzzle over what to do with all those rupees they bought at the airport, touts may appear from the trees offering to change even more at black-market rates more than 50 per cent higher than the official one.