FIJI’S economy remains relatively sheltered from major geopolitical developments overseas such as the recent intervention in Venezuela by the United States of America, whose impacts on the world’s commodity markets have remained subdued.
Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) Governor Ariff Ali said they have yet to see significant impact in transmission channels such as oil and food prices, which have remained relatively steady.
“There’s a lot of talk about what’s happening in the US, Venezuela, Iran and so forth. The way I look at things is any positive or negative impact on Fiji’s economy will be channeled through changes in the prices of commodities, whether it’s through oil, prices of food and certain minerals. At this stage we have not seen any major spike in any of these commodities,” Mr Ali said while speaking at the listing of RB Patel’s corporate bond on the South Pacific Stock Exchange Over-The-Counter market.
Reuters was reporting a decline in oil prices by yesterday afternoon, as markets react to US President Donald Trump’s statement that Venezuela will be “‘turning over’ 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States”.
Mr Ali said RBF is closely watching those developments.
“We are closely monitoring the situation,” he said. “Of course, there’s big protests going on in Iran that may have some impact but on the other side, there’s some talks on having a deal between Russia and the Ukraine, so that’s possible.
“So, if these things happen and as markets reacted overnight, oil prices actually fell, so hopefully this will continue ahead and not put added pressure on the economy.”
