first half of this year. on the production side there has been mixed results. gold production has been declining significantly over last year. this year again there are no expectations of a significant pick up in gold output and this is quite unfortunate as this means we are unable to capitalize on the existing high world market price. cane and sugar production are expected to improve this year after declining last year due to the two major floods. data from the fiji sugar corporation reveals that cane crushed so far this year is around 10 percent higher than last year and more sugar has been produced with a further improvement in the tcts ratio. it is especially heartening to see the improvements of the sugar reforms now slowly coming to fruition and there is still more work being done in this critical industry of ours. the tourism industry continues to be robust despite some declines in visitor arrivals last year and the early part of this year due to natural disasters. gross earnings for 2012 were $ 1. 3 billion and this momentum is expected to continue over the medium term. right now we are in the peak tourism season and data on room occupancy and visitors from our major markets, such as australia and new zealand, are favourable. ladies and gentlemen, the reserve bank of fiji has maintained an accommodative monetary policy stance since november 2011 and the banking system is awash with liquidity, which has put consistent downward pressure on market interest rates. lending rates in the financial system are now hovering at historically low levels while capital and money market rates also continue to trend downwards. against this background, domestic credit has continued to gain momentum with private sector credit growth expanding by 9. 6 percent in june, further signaling the improved confidence in the economy. our challenges whilst we may applaud ourselves for the progress we have made in raising our growth prospects and revitalising some of our sectors on the backdrop of a weak global economy and other domestic challenges – many other hurdles face us and could restrict us from forging ahead on a path to sustainable growth. we totally agree with the imf comment that we can do more. while it is encouraging that investment has picked up and is poised to even surpass the government ’ s target of 25 percent this year, maintaining it at such levels remains an important challenge moving ahead. this requires that we continue with the current monetary and fiscal incentives and at the same time improve our ease of doing business. sentiments from the business community suggest that there are still a number of hurdles in registering and conducting business

cost of authorizing, clearing, and settling a debit card transaction reported by issuers that responded to our survey and provided that information. under the second alternative, an issuer would comply with the interchange fee standard as long as it does not receive an interchange fee above the cap. the proposed rule provides the same initial cap of 12 cents per transaction. the statute requires the board to collect data from card issuers or payment card networks as necessary to carry out the provisions of the statute ( and to publish aggregate data on a biannual basis ). the board expects that it would adjust the cap or safe harbor amounts in the future, if warranted by future data collections. fraud - prevention adjustment. the statute permits, but does not require, the board to allow for an adjustment to an interchange fee to account for an issuer ’ s costs in preventing fraud, provided the issuer complies with standards established by the board relating to fraudprevention activities. 12 the statute excludes fraud losses as a category of costs that may be recovered through the fraud - prevention adjustment. the proposed rule does not currently include a specific adjustment to the amount of interchange fees for an issuer ’ s fraudprevention costs because at the time the proposed rule was issued, the board had insufficient information upon which to propose a specific adjustment and the standards an we believe that both alternatives provide better economic incentives for covered issuers to improve the efficiency of their card operations than would be provided by an approach based solely on each issuer's allowable costs. the safe harbor in the first alternative and the cap in the second alternative are also intended to reduce the administrative compliance burden on industry participants and would improve the consistency and ease of enforcement by supervisors. efta § 920 ( a ) ( 5 ), 12 usc § 1693o - 2 ( a ) ( 5 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches issuer must meet to qualify to receive it. instead, the board requested comment on two general approaches and posed a number of questions related to those alternatives. under the first approach, the fraud adjustment would allow issuers to recover costs incurred for implementing major innovations that would likely result in substantial reductions in total, industry - wide fraud losses. under the second approach, the fraud adjustment would reimburse the issuer for reasonably necessary steps it takes to maintain an effective fraudprevention program. the second approach would not prescribe specific technologies that must be employed as part of the program. after