THE liquidity within our banking system was $581.8million on September 6, the Reserve Bank of Fiji said in its August review.
It was $527.5m at the end of August.
The central bank revealed that the annual growth in Net Domestic Credit remained on an upward trend despite a slowdown in July, down from 5.9 per cent in June to 4.7 per cent.
"This is largely driven by lending to the private sector, which also rose on a yearly basis by 4.7 per cent in July.
"During the same month, the banks' weighted average outstanding lending rate declined by 1 basis point (bp) to 6.98 per cent, while the time deposit rate fell by 5 bps to 2.51 per cent," the RBF said.
Consumer prices rose by 4 per cent in July from a year earlier — lower than the inflation rates noted in previous months.
The decline in inflation from the start of the year, the RBF said, had been driven by lower commodity prices and the current benign domestic driven inflationary pressures.
As a result, the year end inflation forecast remains unchanged at 3.5 per cent.
On the external front, latest provisional accrual trade data revealed that the trade deficit widened annually by 5.7 per cent in the year to November last year, on account of rising retained imports (+2.6per cent) and declining domestic exports (-3.0 per cent).
Foreign reserves were around $1,515 million at the end of August, sufficient to cover around 4.8 months of retained imports of goods and non-factor services.
"Forward looking indicators for employment suggest more recruitment in the coming months.
"According to the RBF's job advertisement survey, the number of jobs advertised rose by 6.7 per cent during the first seven months over the same period last year, an improvement compared to annual declines noted in the early part of this year," the central bank said.