FIJI’S Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has indicated that the Fijian economy is “really on course” for 11 straight years of economic growth, setting an unprecedented forecast.
Mr Bainimarama highlighted this while speaking at the Victorian Multicultural Sports Association (VMSA) business event at the Crown Towers in Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday.
“Now our economy is poised to grow for the ninth consecutive year, the longest period of sustained economic growth ever recorded,” Mr Bainimarama said.
“And we’ve grown our economy year after year despite the great challenges of Cyclone Evan, Cyclone Winston and most recently the back-to-back arrival of cyclones Josie and Keni.
“And we haven’t built the Fijian economy on quick fixes, we’ve set ourselves up for long-term success, and the projections forecast that our economy will grow next year and the year after that. So we are really on course for eleven straight years of growing our economy.”
According to recent projections by the Reserve Bank of Fiji, the Fijian economy is envisaged to achieve its ninth year of consecutive growth this year.
Despite the negative impact of Tropical Cyclones Josie and Keni and flooding in early April, a moderate growth of 3.2 per cent (downgraded from the earlier forecast of 3.6 per cent) is anticipated, following an unchanged growth estimate of 4.2 per cent for 2017.
The central bank stated while agricultural production and related manufacturing activities were expected to be affected, the public administration and defence; wholesale and retail trade; construction and the information and communication sectors were expected to be the major contributors to growth in 2018.
In 2019, the central bank has projected economic growth by 3.4 per cent (revised upward from the earlier forecast of 3.2 per cent).
This is expected to be underpinned by the transport and storage; financial and insurance activities; wholesale and retail trade sectors coupled with some recovery anticipated for the manufacturing and agriculture sectors post-natural disasters in 2018.
A broad-based growth forecast of 3.2 per cent (remains unchanged) is expected in 2020 with major contributions expected from manufacturing; transport and storage; financial and insurance activities; wholesale and retail trade, and the accommodation & food services sectors.
