sada reddy : fiji ’ s economy presentation by mr sada reddy, deputy governor of the reserve bank of fiji, to the fiji nz business council, suva, 3 october 2008. * * * outline the outline of my presentation is as follows : • global economic conditions • domestic economic conditions • summary global economic conditions global growth is slowing. in its july 2008 forecast, imf expected global growth to slow to 4. 1 percent in 2008 and to soften further to 3. 9 percent in 2009. however, in light of the severe global financial crisis, which unfolded in the last few weeks, there is a high likelihood that global growth may further decline. we therefore expect our major trading partners and visitor source markets to have a sluggish outlook for the next two years. emerging economies, like china and india, may experience some slowdown in growth but will continue to experience relatively high growth rates and may provide some stability to global growth. economies 2008 ( f ) 2009 ( f ) australia 4. 2 2. 6 2. 6 new zealand 3. 1 0. 5 1. 7 us 2. 0 1. 8 1. 4 euro - zone 2. 6 1. 3 0. 9 japan 2. 0 0. 9 0. 9 china 11. 9 9. 9 9. 1 india 9. 0 7. 5 7. 6 singapore 7. 7 4. 2 4. 6 south korea 5. 0 4. 4 4. 3 source : consensus forecast & asia pacific consensus forecast – sep - 08 domestic economic conditions • gdp growth : after contracting in 2007 ( - 6. 6 % ), our economy is showing some recovery in 2008 ( 1. 7 % ). forecasts for 2009 and 2010 are 1. 4 percent and 1. 9 percent, respectively. these forecasts were released by the macroeconomic policy committee in july 2008. these growth rates are too low and insufficient to generate adequate employment. however, fiji ’ s economy has been very resilient despite the global economic slowdown and massive increase in fuel and food prices. • major drivers of economic growth : the major positive contributors to the forecast medium - term growth are tourism ( transport and wholesale & retail trade and hotels & restaurants ), agriculture, manufacturing and mining sectors, which more - thanoffset the negative contributions from community, social & personal services sector. • visitor arrivals : visitor arrivals are at historical highs. a strong recovery in visitor arrivals by an annual 12 percent was seen in the first eight

points it will work on in the run up to 2020 and beyond. the first, which we are here to discuss today, is to explore synergies between target2 and t2s, with the goal of achieving a consolidated market infrastructure for large - value payments and securities settlement. the second action point is to prepare for the enhancement of target2 services with instant retail payments, at least in the settlement layer. currently, business requirements for the settlement of instant payments and credit risk management across payment systems are being gathered from market participants. we also need to assess whether interoperability arrangements between automated clearing houses can ensure full pan - european reachability for instant payment scheme participants in the eu and if and to what extent risk mitigation measures have to be harmonised across automated clearing houses to facilitate interoperability. third, there are plans to review the harmonisation of eurosystem arrangements and procedures for collateralisation. further progress is needed in this area before the business case for a common eurosystem collateral management system can be reconsidered. conclusion europe ’ s financial market infrastructure has been built on the basis of a collective approach, driven jointly by the public and the private sector. in all three action points for the market infrastructure beyond 2020, the eurosystem will continue to work closely with the market in order to benefit from its knowledge and experience as well as to ensure that europe ’ s future financial market infrastructure fully meets the needs of its users. please have your say – whether today in this information session, in the existing users ’ fora or by written procedure. your input is needed. let us jointly write the script for the future of the euroystem ’ s rtgs services. with this, i hand over to the chair of the meeting. bis central bankers ’ speeches