THERE was a decline in foreign reserves over the August 2018 to July 2019 fiscal year standing at $2,087.3 million at the end of July 2019, sufficient to cover 4.9 months of retained imports of goods and non-factor services.
This was highlighted by the Reserve Bank of Fiji in its August 2018-July 2019 annual report which was tabled in Parliament this week by the Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
RBF governor Ariff Ali highlighted that the economy was estimated to have grown at a modest 1.0 per cent in 2019 as a result of the subdued global economic conditions and sluggish domestic demand mirrored by softening consumption and investment activities.
Mr Ali also noted that business and consumer confidence as per the June 2019 business expectations and retail sales surveys, were in line with slowing economic and financial conditions.
According to the governor the overall financial system remained stable during the fiscal year with gross assets rising to $21.5 billion at the end of June 2019 with a forecast for the domestic growth to increase to 1.7 per cent in 2020 mainly on the back of improved sectoral performance and aggregate demand.
A statement from the RBF yesterday said despite a challenging year in global financial markets, the bank reported a net profit of $28.9 million for the 2018-19 financial year, slightly lower than the $31.5m in the preceding financial year.
It said the RBF had transferred $29.4m to Government, which included $1.5m being one fifth of the Revaluation Reserve Account, including the transfer of $1.0m to the General Reserve Account.
Meanwhile Mr Ali said in the 2018-19 financial year, inflation averaged 3.8 per cent led by higher prices of food, alcohol, cigarettes, yaqona and domestic fuel, slowing down to 0.7 per cent in July 2019.
He said the bank’s key objectives of low inflation and maintaining a sufficient level of foreign reserves remained intact.
