Press Release No 13 –
Economic Growth for 2014 And 2015 Stronger Than Earlier Forecast
Press Release No. : 13/2015
Date : 10 April 2015
The Chairman of the Macroeconomic Policy Committee and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Mr Barry Whiteside announced that, “the domestic economy is now forecast to expand by 4.3 percent this year, an upward revision from the earlier growth forecast of 4.0 percent announced in the 2015 National Budget. If achieved, this will be Fiji’s sixth consecutive year of positive growth and third consecutive year of growth above 4.0 percent.”
The Chairman highlighted that, “the revised forecast incorporates the higher Government expenditure budgeted for 2015, particularly the larger-than-expected allocation for capital expenditure. Recent developments and latest data on the domestic economy have also been taken into account in the revisions. The public administration & defence; finance & insurance; accommodation & food services; human health & social work; construction and education sectors are all now expected to do better-than-earlier anticipated.”
Growth this year is projected to be broad-based with positive contributions from all sectors of the economy. The construction; finance & insurance; wholesale & retail; manufacturing; information & communication; agriculture; transport & storage; accommodation & food services and the public administration & defence sectors are forecast to be the main drivers of growth in 2015.
Speaking on last year’s growth, Mr Whiteside stated that, “the growth estimate for 2014 has been revised up to 4.5 percent from 4.2 percent. The upward revision is largely underpinned by better- than-expected performances by the public administration & defence; finance & insurance; fishing & aquaculture; information & communication and the accommodation & food services sectors. Record visitor arrivals and higher than expected activity in tourism related sectors and improved cane and sugar industry output also contributed to the upward revision. Growth in 2014 was broad-based with the finance & insurance; manufacturing and the construction sectors being the main drivers.”