services providers are low even when there are no legal obstacles to or monetary costs in doing so. while biases are deeply embedded in the human mind, they have not prevented humans from becoming ( for better or for worse ) the dominant species on earth. in fact, in many circumstances, biases and mental shortcuts will “ do the trick ” and help us to d. kahneman and a. tversky. “ prospect theory : an analysis of decision under risk. ” econometrica, vol. 47, no. 2, 1979, pp. 263 – 291. kahneman, d., “ thinking, fast and slow ”, new york : farrar, straus, and giroux, 2011 ; kahneman, d. “ maps of bounded rationality : psychology for behavioral economics. ” the american economic review, vol. 93, no. 5, 2003, pp. 1449 – 1475. take decisions instantly and without effort that we would not later regret, by and large. 6 however, the jungle of finance is in many ways different from the environment where humans have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. when it comes to financial decisions, mental shortcuts that were efficient for escaping lions or capturing gazelles may prove inadequate to make ( say ) choices on long - term financial retirement plans. they may prompt consumers to take decisions that they would not have taken based on a more thorough assessment. the evidence from behavioural economics should be enough to convince regulators and supervisors that it is crucial to complement the traditional regulatory approach – based on pre - contractual disclosure to overcome information asymmetries – with behavioural insights. policy makers have started testing new instruments, examples of which include : i ) standardising pre - contractual documents, so that they selectively provide ( or highlight ) only those pieces of information that are most relevant to the consumer ; ii ) prescribing the use of the most effective channels for interacting with customers : for instance, evidence exists that text alerts and mobile banking apps are much more effective than periodic reports for attracting the attention of consumers that are incurring overdraft charges ; 7 iii ) focusing on the overall fairness of contractual relationships, e. g. in order to limit any over - indebtedness induced by present bias ; iv ) establishing cooling - off periods, i. e. the possibility for consumers to withdraw from contracts, especially in the event of cross - selling practices and distance selling ( thus neutral

democracy – political stability and reengagement of our development partners. as a result, consumption and investment activity have been very robust. this is confirmed by trends in the various partial indicators. improved disposable household incomes from lower taxes, government financial support and remittance inflows from fijians abroad continue to underpin consumer spending. the vehicle industry has clearly benefitted under this climate and this has been further supported by favourable labour market conditions, as reflected in growing numbers of newly registered members with the fiji national provident fund and job advertisements placed in the daily newspapers. bis central bankers ’ speeches investment activity has expanded and continues to grow with momentum from both the private sector and government. in recent years the government has allocated sizeable budgets for infrastructure development, which benefit both the public and private sectors and which will gradually unlock previously untapped resources across our major islands as our local entrepreneurs begin to play their part to develop their businesses. this year, despite tropical cyclone ( tc ) winston and the april floods brought on by tc zena, the fijian economy is still forecast to grow by 2. 4 percent. this growth reflects expected strong activity in our tourism - related industries, including transport, wholesale, retail, accommodation & food services, which were relatively unscathed by the cyclones. in addition, with the on - going reconstruction and recovery efforts, construction activity is expected to remain strong, further boosting retail sales activity. ladies and gentlemen, we know that imports of investment and consumption goods are projected to pick up as the domestic economy strengthens and reconstruction efforts postcyclones continue. when we couple this with expected lower exports of agricultural products as a result of the natural disasters, it is possible that we will see a small dent in our foreign reserves towards the end of this year. nonetheless, at the moment, our official reserves continue to remain comfortable, at just under $ 2. 0 billion, or enough to pay for 5. 5 months of retained imports. inflation, another key macro - economic indicator which we monitor closely, spiked in june to 5. 3 percent on the back of price hikes in local agricultural market items following the cyclones. this effect will be temporary, and in the near - to - medium term, we forecast inflation to be stabilised by the existing low world commodity prices. our end - year number for inflation is closer to 3 percent. the medium term outlook for the fiji economy is expected to remain positive. notwithstanding any further adverse shocks, our