barry whiteside : overview of the fijian economy address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the opening of credit corporation ( fiji ) limited ’ s new building, nadi, 4 october 2013. * * * the chairman of the credit corporation board, mr garth mcilwain board of directors managing director, mr peter dixon management and staff distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen introductory comments good morning and bula vinaka. i thank peter for the kind invitation to open this new credit corporation ( fiji ) limited building, which i am told will now house the institution ’ s nadi branch. these occasions are exciting for us as they are evidence of the increased confidence and optimism shown by our business community in the fijian economy. we are progressing as a nation, and in this regard are grateful to institutions like credit corporation for their commitment and for building their presence in fiji. please allow me to provide a brief update on how our economy is progressing. the fiji economy we are fortunate that the fijian economy has not been seriously impacted by the current global slowdown. our economy this year is forecast to grow by 3. 2 percent, up from the 2. 2 percent growth last year. consumption activity has been upbeat and is a reflection of a combination of factors including lower personal income taxes and higher inward remittances. inflation is expected to be around 3. 0 percent by the year - end and our foreign reserves were recorded at $ 1. 83 billion as at 03 september 2013, sufficient to pay for 5. 2 months of retained imports of goods and services. investment is forecast to be around 28 percent of gdp this year, above the government target of 25 percent. we however still need to work on some real challenges and in this regard, the current accommodative monetary policy stance will be maintained. we are mindful that consumption and investment led growth cannot be sustained for too long as they have heavy import content. for this reason, policies aimed at export diversification and promotion, and import substitution remain paramount. new lending as an indicator of economic activity, has increased significantly in the last 8 months. lending institutions like credit corporation are experiencing great competition as they work on retaining customers in a period of high liquidity and falling interest rates, but at the same time ensuring they meet their growth targets. financial institutions therefore remain the backbone of our financial system and their expansion is an indicator of increased confidence in our economy. this new development by credit corporation is definitely

##evu / naitasiri, namosi / serua, nadroga / nadi, bua / macuata, cakaudrove and fly - in fly - out operations to taveuni and kadavu. apart from various deposits products, the rural program also includes small and micro loans to communities in rural and outlying areas. the government and the reserve bank have supported this initiative of anz from the beginning and are pleased to see that more and more rural areas are being serviced through anz rural banking. we encourage various businesses and government agencies, including nltb, to use these services when they wish to make payments such as royalties, land rent etc. financial literacy programs organised by the united nations development program ( undp ) have been conducted in conjunction with anz rural banking in these rural areas as well since october 2004. atms atms provide a very convenient way of doing banking. customers can access their bank accounts to make cash withdrawals or credit card cash advances and check their account balances as well as topping up their mobile balances. with more and more atms being installed around the country, the need to go to a bank for cash has reduced dramatically. i am told that people in fiji use atms more than in many other countries. this is seen from the frequency of use of each atm in the country. as of today, there are 151 atms in fiji. of that total, anz has 70 atms or 46 percent of the total. this is an excellent achievement for anz in fiji! the location of this atm in nasese is going to service a rapidly growing part of suva. we hope that this will lessen the queues at the atms in suva. fijiclear while we are on the topic of access to money, i would like to take this opportunity to say a few words about fijiclear. fiji ’ s electronic payment system is called fijiclear. this system went live on 30 august 2007 and was launched on 16 october 2007. fijiclear allows people to make and receive payments electronically on the same day through a commercial bank anywhere in fiji. fijiclear has been in operation for almost a year but for some reason many of our people are not using this very easy and efficient payment system. there are a number of benefits of using fijiclear. to the payee i. e. the person receiving money, the benefits include : • funds are credited into the account