THE Reserve Bank of Fiji has kept the overnight policy rate of 0.5 per cent following its monthly meeting.
Governor and chairman of the central bank, Barry Whiteside said a moderate growth outlook for the international economy was now in place, following upward revisions to global growth by the International Monetary Fund earlier this month.
The outturn is largely underpinned by the better-than expected performance of the US economy and the resolution of the Greek debt crisis in the first quarter of this year, he said in a statement.
Domestically, the economy is expected to continue on its recovery path in 2012.
While the two recent floods in the first quarter of this year provided some temporary shock to the economy, the impact is likely to be twofold.
Mr Whiteside said on the downside, lost production from key flood-affected sectors would be a drag on total output but this was expected to be offset by increased reconstruction and government activities in its rehabilitation efforts.
In addition, Mr Whiteside highlighted that positive developments in the tourism and resource-related sectors should support growth this year.
Foreign reserves are currently at $1.47billion, sufficient to cover 4.7 months of retained imports.