UNITY Fiji party leader Savenaca Narube believes Fiji has already entered a recession, warning that the country’s economic performance has fallen far short of expectations and calling on the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) to play a stronger role in advising government.
Speaking on The Fiji Times’ online portal The Lens@177, the former RBF governor said the sharp decline in economic growth was a major cause for concern.
“We’re already in recession,” he said.
“The quantity of our reduction in GDP is huge. It’s nearly half of what we expected.”
Mr Narube acknowledged that economists typically define a recession as two consecutive quarters of declining gross domestic product (GDP), but noted that Fiji does not publish quarterly GDP figures.
“Recession is defined by economists as successive declines in GDP over two quarters of the year, but we don’t have quarterly data, we just have yearly data.
“We are driving our projections. So I think we are into it.”
He also commented on the role of RBF Governor Ariff Ali, saying the central bank chief had an important responsibility to independently assess and communicate the country’s economic health.
“He needs to walk through to the ministers, and to the Prime Minister. He needs to brief them. I don’t know if he still does that. I did it, I briefed Cabinet now and then on the economic situation.
“He could do that a lot more.”
