Press Release No. : 16/2023
Date : 25 September 2023
Reserve Bank of Fiji Presents its Audited Financial Statements for the 2022-2023 Financial Year
The Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) has submitted its audited financial statements along with its Operations Report for the year ended 31 July 2023 to the Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Chand Prasad, on 25 September 2023, as required under section 56 of the RBF Act. The audited 2022-2023 financial statements were signed at a special board meeting today.
In making the submission, the RBF Governor, Mr Ariff Ali, stated that the RBF had made a record net profit of $102.2 million for the financial year ending 31 July 2023. The all-time high profit directly resulted from higher interest rates in the global financial markets and prudent management of the nation’s foreign reserves invested in our major trading partner economies. As required under the Act, $103.4 million will be paid to the Government, including $2.1 million being one-fifth of the Revaluation Reserve Account, after a net transfer of $1.0 million to the General Reserves. This compares to $44.4 million transferred to the Government for the 2021-2022 financial year. Governor Ali also indicated that future profits to the Government will be contingent on the foreign reserves holdings and interest rates in international financial markets.
Governor Ali added that the Bank had continued to satisfactorily achieve its key objectives of low inflation and maintaining an adequate level of foreign reserves. Annual headline inflation averaged 2.7 percent in the 2022-23 financial year, primarily influenced by imported inflation. At the end of July 2023, foreign reserves were adequate at $3.6 billion, sufficient to cover 6.3 months of retained imports. Given the comfortable outlook of the Bank’s twin monetary policy objectives, an accommodative monetary policy stance was maintained throughout the review period to support Fiji’s post pandemic economic recovery. The financial system, with gross assets of $28.7 billion, remained strong and well capitalised, supported by both offsite and onsite prudential oversight. The RBF also achieved some key milestones in the reporting year, including the launch of the upgraded Real Time Gross Settlement and the establishment of a new Central Securities Depository system.
Governor Ali highlighted that despite the weakness in the global economy, mainly from tighter monetary policy in major countries, the Fijian economy remains firm on its recovery path, led by a strong rebound in tourism-related sectors. Following a 20.0 percent growth in 2022, the Fijian economy is projected to grow by 8.0 percent this year and moderate to 3.8 percent in 2024.
As the Bank celebrates 50 years of central banking, the Board of Directors thanked the staff of the RBF, as well as all the Bank’s stakeholders, for their continued support, resulting in the Bank achieving its key outputs and looks forward to their ongoing support in the 2023-2024 financial year.
For further details, please contact:-
Communications Office
Telephone: (679) 3223 381 Email: info@rbf.gov.fj
Mr Mervin Singh – Manager Corporate Communications
Telephone: (679) 3223 229 Email: mervin@rbf.gov.fj