THE Reserve Bank of Fiji’s economic review for the year ending July 2018 states that the 2018/2019 National Budget announced on June 28 will add further impetus to economic growth this year and the next.
According to the central bank, the 2018-2019 financial year net deficit was $414.2m, equivalent to 3.5 per cent of GDP.
It said this would emanate from the budgeted Government revenue of $4,236.4million (36.3 per cent of GDP) and Government spending of $4,650.6m (39.8 per cent of GDP).
Consequently, the central bank said the Government debt was expected to increase to $5,583.2m at the end of July 2019, equivalent to 47.8 per cent of the GDP.
Sectoral performances have been positive with increases noted in visitor arrivals, gold and timber production.
Visitor arrivals increased by an annual 3.0 per cent to 383,982 visitors cumulative to June as arrivals were higher from US, New Zealand, Continental Europe, China, India, Hong Kong and rest of Asia and Pacific Islands.
