barry whiteside : update of the global and fijian economy address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the fiji economic update, suva, 20 august 2013. * * * mr ikbal jannif, pro chancellor & chair of the usp council dr esther williams, deputy vice chancellor, usp excellencies and members of the diplomatic corps permanent secretaries professor jafarey, head of the school of economics, usp distinguished guests students ladies and gentleman bula vinaka and a very good morning to you all. introductory comments first of all, let me thank professor jafarey for his kind invitation for me to speak to you this morning. it is always pleasing to address a forum such as this, where academics, policy makers, ngo ’ s and the general public can put our heads together and discuss fiji ’ s economic issues. economists, as we all know, will have differing opinions on economic performance and it is no different here in fiji. however, the discussions today will help identify economic challenges and constraints and enable us to debate solutions so that we may achieve our full potential. let me therefore applaud the university of the south pacific for organising this important forum every year. i see my role this morning as helping to prepare the ground for further deliberations later today. my address will cover what we at the reserve bank deem to be the current state of the economy and some of the challenges we are facing. in discussing our general macroeconomic environment i will also point out areas where we have excelled and one or two where we have not, and some of the key risks we face as we set ourselves up to move ahead. the global economy on all occasions when we make such reviews we first touch on what is happening around us. as a small open economy it is very likely that developments offshore will work their way back to fiji in one form or another. hence we need to assess the risks and opportunities in this area. the recovery after the global financial crisis ( gfc ), unfortunately, has been uneven and rather short - lived. advanced economies remain jolted with poor confidence, high unemployment and unsustainable public debt. some are also grappling with weak financial sectors. the emerging & developing economies, while performing relatively better, have now also succumbed to the latest slowdown. the international monetary fund ( imf ) has revised global economic growth downwards three times already this year. we see that the world economy is now poised

barry whiteside : business confidence and resilience in fiji ’ s economy address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the re - opening of bsp bank, nadi, 21 february 2013. * * * mr. ian clyne, bank south pacific group chief executive officer mr. kevin mccarthy, bank south pacific fiji country manager management and staff of bank south pacific fiji distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen introductory comments bula vinaka, a very good evening and a belated happy new year to you all! let me first thank kevin for his kind invitation to this “ reopening ” ceremony. i am pleased to be officiating at yet another unveiling of a bsp premises. while this change may have been out of necessity, we see many other financial institutions and businesses throughout the country have also been refurbishing and upgrading premises and systems in recent times. this is testament to a great turnaround in business confidence across fiji. these events are investments and therefore a great vote of confidence in the locality, the industry and the economy. ladies and gentlemen, this evening ’ s event bears a special significance. we stand in premises that were underwater not so long ago. the whole country has always marveled at the resilience and tenacity of the people of the west, having faced the brunt of three devastating floods in four years. and only just recently you were hit by the devastating cyclone evan. so many individuals and businesses have had to expend time, energy and resources in rebuilding their livelihoods. they could have easily said “ enough ” at some stage and pulled up their “ roots ” and moved on. however, their roots have proven to be very deep. there is strong faith in this town of nadi to bounce back and today we are witnessing bsp ’ s own efforts at this. no doubt there are many others in this town and across the west. my admiration goes out to all of you. natural disasters always present some of the greatest risks to our country and economy. our “ smallness ” further accentuates this threat. the resilience, therefore, of “ weathering the storm ” and getting up again quickly after being knocked down, is something so natural to us. today we all applaud bsp ’ s efforts in returning to nadi, might i add, even better than before. the bsp group ladies and gentlemen, bank south pacific is no longer a newcomer in