Grow the economy or dream on: Reddy

September 22, 2009 02:43:44 PM

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Fiji’s economy needs to grow by five percent or more annually otherwise promises to the people will not be delivered, says Reserve Bank of Fiji governor Sada Reddy.

“These are really low growth rates and we need to lift our growth rates,” Reddy said, commenting on Fiji’s projected growth rate of 1.82 percent for 2010.

“With (a) two percent growth rate we cannot employ all our people who are unemployed at present and also who would be joining the workforce in the coming years. We need to raise our growth rate to five percent or above otherwise we will not be able to deliver what we’re promising our people,” he said.

Reddy issued a fresh call today for higher levels of private sector investment as a way of improving Fiji’s growth rates following last week’s pre-Budget consultations where he said investment needed to be at 25 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through improved business conditions, accelerated reforms, higher productivity and a diversified economy.

The RBF governor recently visited Singapore where officials of the Monetary Authority of Singapore said their economy had grown at a surprising speed in the past two months.

“Their projection for this year was negative 10 percent and now it is negative 5 percent.  Singapore is at the forefront of trade and always a lead indicator in terms of how economies may grow,” he said.

Reddy said the RBF is currently reviewing its forecast on the economy and will announce a new figure soon.