in the usa economic developments in the united states continued to deteriorate during the first half of the year. this was largely connected to problems in the financial markets. in the most recent monetary policy report published at the beginning of july we were expecting gdp growth in the united states to slow down to around 1. 5 per cent a year in 2008 and 2009. i agreed on the whole with the picture of international developments presented in the monetary policy report, but my assessment was that developments in the united states could be even weaker than we were assuming. there is a risk that we will have to lower the forecasts even more in coming reports, particularly the forecasts for 2009. gdp growth in the second quarter of 2008 was actually slightly stronger than we had expected. gdp increased by 0. 5 per cent compared with the first quarter. growth in the united states is now largely being upheld by exports alone, which are increasing at a good rate as a result of world growth and the dollar depreciation ( compared with the level 2 - 3 years ago ). domestic demand will on the whole not show any increase in 2008 and 2009. i do not believe that the recovery in domestic demand will get started before the financial system has stabilised and before the fall in us house prices has come to a halt. house prices have continued to fall during the summer. growth in europe will also slow down europe fared better than the united states at the beginning of the year. this is partly because the financial crisis originated in the united states and the financial market turbulence has not been as severe as there. another explanation is that the financial balance is better in europe ; public sector finances have improved in recent years and the current account is close to zero. we assumed in the monetary policy report that gdp growth in the euro area would slow down to 1. 7 per cent in 2008 and 1. 2 per cent in 2009, to reach almost 2 per cent in 2010. at the beginning of july we had seen little sign of the slower growth in the statistics on production and in the national accounts. on the contrary, there had been several positive surprises. however, there were tangible signs of a future slowdown in other types of data, such as corporate and household confidence indicators. the quick figures for the second quarter now indicate that gdp in the euro area declined by 0. 2 per cent compared with the first quarter, which was weaker than we had expected. global growth still strong gdp growth in the world as a whole has been

barry whiteside : celebrating the fijian entrepreneurial spirit opening address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the launch of the 2013 fuji development bank small business awards, suva, 14 august 2013. * * * ratu deve toganivalu executives and staff of fiji development bank fellow sponsors distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen introductory comments bula vinaka and a very good morning to you all. thank you, ratu deve, for your kind invitation to launch the 2013 fdb small business awards. it is another significant event on the business calendar where we recognise the achievements of the private sector, and in this particular case, small businesses in fiji. these awards were conceived around the idea of the need for us all to stop what we are doing and salute those small businesses doing great things for our country. let us not only celebrate the winners, but also all the others that have dared to back their entrepreneurial spirit and set up a business. we trust that this event will create the necessary awareness out there of these “ mum and dad ” type enterprises. we hope that this will further encourage them to grow from strength to strength to become much larger businesses in the future. there are of course many examples we can cite of large successful fijian companies that started from virtually nothing. the small business awards today is actually the 10th anniversary of the fdb ’ s small business awards and i am honored to be here to share this achievement with you. i applaud the fiji development bank for organising this competition over the years. the fact that it has been sustained shows fdb ’ s commitment and energy towards growing the fijian economy by assisting the small players, particularly, in providing them with access to credit. one of the major challenges of small businesses is who will give them the money to start and sustain their initial operations? the winners i have been informed that this year there are seven award categories : – agriculture, tourism, wholesale & retail, professional & business services, manufacturing, a best business practice award and a special award. that pretty much covers everything. ladies and gentlemen, in as far as gender balance goes when it comes to small businesses, women are clearly the driving force. unfortunately they beat us men “ hands down ”. last year ’ s awards saw women entrepreneurs win five of the seven awards. as a man, this is always a difficult and painful one to explain as it is not only fijian men that suffer our well known “ malua