certified auditor ’ s copy of the accounts along with the operations report of the bank for the seven months period ending 31 july 2016. • previously when the government ’ s financial year was the calendar year, the rbf ’ s annual report would be submitted to the minister by march 31 each year. last year was the first time that the audited accounts and operations report were presented for the period 1 january 2016 to 31 july 2016. both the accounts and report only cover the first seven months of the 2016 financial year as the last five months ( august to december 2015 ) are accounted for in the bank ’ s 2015 annual report. 3. key outcomes • the objective of central banks is not to maximise profit. its key role is to support economic growth by ensuring that there is price stability, external stability and financial system stability. i will shortly highlight the key outcomes in relation to these three kpis. financial performance • before i elaborate on the three stability objectives, please allow me to quickly highlight our financial performance for the seven month period ending 31 july 2016. • the rbf made a profit of $ 13. 9 million for the seven month period. however, the total amount transferred to government was $ 16. 9 million as it included $ 3. 0 million of the revaluation reserve account ( rra ). • this is in accordance with sections 8 ( 3 ) and 34 of the rbf act which states that one fifth of the rra is to be transferred to the government along with our profits. • this compares with a transfer of $ 32. 2 million to government for the twelve month period ended 31 december 2015. • it may not be appropriate to compare the bank ’ s financial performance in 2016 with 2015 as the periods covered are not the same i. e. seven months in 2016 against 12 months in 2015. • the total profit and revaluation reserve transferred to government in the past five years totalled $ 160. 0 million. price stability • all central banks have the same mandate to ensure that inflation is low and stable. this is no different even for small central banks like us. • as you are well aware, fiji was hit by tropical cyclone ( tc ) winston in february 2016. consequently, the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables and for some of us, the supply of our favourite national drink, kava, was affected. consequently, inflation rose to 5. 5 percent at the end of july 2016 from 1. 6 percent at the end of december 2015.

savenaca narube : telecommunications ’ key role in the fijian economy opening address by mr savenaca narube, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the launch of transtel ’ s new product “ yehdo ”, at the university of the south pacific ’ s oceania centre, suva, 4 june 2008. * * * the board of transtel mr. radrodro tabualevu, chief executive officer management and staff distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen introductory comments i thank mr. tabualevu for his invitation to be here this evening to launch transtel ’ s ’ new product. a big yehdo to everyone. i wish to congratulate the company for this new initiative. it is very encouraging to see companies take on new initiatives during such challenging times. i commend transtel for their innovation and confidence. we must push forward. business must go on. i am pleased that such innovation is alive in a critical sector like telecommunications. this sector plays a key catalytic role in the economy. it determines the efficient flow of information across the country and to the rest of the world. and we all know that information is power. business cannot survive without an efficient transfer of this information. development of the telecommunication sector i have been closely associated with the telecommunications sector in fiji for some time. during the last ten years, i have seen significant developments. it really began with the establishment of amalgamated telecommunications limited or ath in 1998 – exactly ten years ago – which partially privatized the ownership of telecom fiji i fully subscribe to the ath slogan which says that “ telecommunications has never been in better hands ”. then came the breaking up of telecom fiji into its major business streams which was really a push for better efficiency, productivity and customer focus. i believe that this has worked well for telecom fiji. then the southern cross fiber optic submarine cable came on stream which opened up the capacity to communicate with the rest of the world. the commerce commission pitched in by lowering charges. of course this year, fiji took another giant leap forward when we deregulated the industry. i believe that we should acknowledge the development of our telecommunication sector. we, of course, still have a lot to do. but with a deregulated environment, we can be guaranteed that the motivation and incentive to fulfill customer ’ s demands will be stronger than ever before. meeting customer demands this is really what we are celebrating today – meeting the demands of the customers with