##m ) and the current facility construction shows their commitment to progress and confidence in the economy. in total, the company has invested over $ 128 million in various ventures to sustain its growth over the medium to long term. ladies and gentlemen, in addition to these investments, bsp life has invested a significant amount in private equity in the last 5 years. their pool of fixed - income investments which include investments in governments infrastructure bonds means they are investing in fiji ’ s future. bsp life also provides security and savings for our people and over the past 5 years, they have paid out close to $ 300 million in maturing life policies, claims and bonuses. adding up these achievements shows that bsp life is not only a leading corporate entity, but one that has contributed to and continues to support the growth of the nation. i understand that the chief investment officer will provide us with more details of this current development so i will not divulge any further details. conclusion i wish to conclude by once again thanking the bsp life team for inviting me to today ’ s ceremony and i congratulate the board, management and staff on this notable achievement. vinaka vakalevu. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

damage on the human, social and economic fronts. there are currently over 43 million active cases worldwide and around 1. 2 million deaths across the globe. despite hitting our economy hard, i am pleased to highlight that fiji has had no covid community transmissions for almost 200 days now. furthermore, while some countries are reimposing lockdown measures in response to the second wave of the virus, here in fiji we are blessed and privileged to be able to gather for functions like this, attend soccer and rugby matches in person with other fans as well as meet for religious functions. let us not take this for granted and we appreciate the good work done by our agencies. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches economic updates the imf estimates the economic impact of the coronavirus to reach us $ 28 trillion by 2025. unemployment has spiked in all countries and the global economy is projected to contract by 4. 4 percent in 2020, with 90 million people falling back into extreme poverty. this is a crisis like no other and the outturn is expected to be worse than the global depression of the 1930s. unfortunately, the fijian economy has not been spared from the wrath of the pandemic. with international borders closed, tourism, the mainstay of our economy, has come to a standstill. given that tourism cuts across many sectors and accounts for 30 – 40 percent of fiji ’ s gross domestic product, the fijian economy is forecast to contract by 21. 7 percent this year – our largest contraction since the 6. 3 percent decline in 1987. we are currently reviewing our economic forecasts and it is encouraging to note some improvements in domestic economic activity since the onset of covid - related restrictions in the first quarter. mobility and consumption indicators have picked up in line with the easing of the restrictions domestically while cane, timber and some manufacturing outputs have recovered somewhat from their lows recorded in the first half of the year. in this regard, i am pleased to highlight that positive developments in the partial indicators that we monitor point towards a softening of the contraction that was projected earlier. our official forecast will be released later next month. monetary policy objectives despite losing close to a billion dollars in tourism related foreign exchange income over the past 6 months, our foreign reserves remain at comfortable levels of just above $ 2. 2 billion and sufficient to cover 8. 2 months of retained imports. rumours of a devaluation were rife on social media sometime back, and there are some who continue to speculate