THE strong performance by statutory financial institutions is creating an enabling environment that allows Government to fund its projects and programmes for 2014.
Finance permanent secretary, Mr Filimoni Waqabaca said the recent announcement by two statutory bodies of earning more revenue for Government was an indication of the state of the Fijian economy.
It is also a reflection of the optimism that is building up and there are strong signals that the steady economic growth will continue in the short to medium term.
This comes as the Reserve Bank of Fiji transferred $39.9m to Government comprising of $31.9m as its profit and $8m representing the re-evaluation reserves account as per RBF Act.
Right on the heels of this announcement, Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority revealed that it has surpassed its first quarter target by $39m and collected a total of $431.13m in income tax, Value Added Tax, custom duties and other taxes.
These developments reflect the economic progress over the years as reflected by the consecutive years of positive economic growth and confidence in the country.
This has also been recognised by multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank.
Mr Waqabaca said all this puts Government in a strong position to financially meet its own targets.
“The Ministry for its part has had a very vigorous first quarter with more than $100 million paid to service both external and domestic loans,” he said.
This was in the form of $66.4m for domestic and $36.3m for external loans that was due for servicing in the first quarter and constitutes to around 37 per cent of the total due cumulative to June, Mr Waqabaca said.
He said bonds floated in the market have raised $101.2m which was 40 percent of the total that needs to be raised in 2014.
Government borrowings are primarily channelled towards revamping the productive capacity of the Fijian economy in terms of infrastructure development mainly intended to unlock depressed regions to ensure economic development and inclusive growth.
RBF Governor, Mr Barry Whiteside said, “The improved profit was achieved in a challenging global environment as the returns on foreign reserves, which are the principal source of income for the Bank, continued to be affected by very low interest rates in our major trading partner economies”.
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