Resource-related investments particularly in the mining, forestry and mineral water industries will strengthen in the coming months says the Reserve Bank of Fiji.
This was noted in the Central Bank’s economic review for the month of March 2011, which was released yesterday.
“A strong growth in exports by 18.1 per cent and slower imports growth of 2.5 per cent,” the RBF stated in its report.
“The growth in export receipts was underpinned by an increase in receipts from re-exports, fish, timber, gold, mineral water and other domestic exports, while the growth in imports was led mainly by higher payments for intermediate goods.
“However, investments, particularly in the mining, forestry and mineral water industries are expected to strengthen.”
RBF reveals the momentum in global recovery continues to persist although at varying paces across advanced and emerging market economies.
The recent earthquake in Japan is estimated to have a negligible impact on the current global growth forecast given that Japan’s growth will decline marginally and reconstruction efforts have started in the affected area.
However, RBF believes “inflationary pressures arising from increasing oil and food prices, ongoing civil unrest in the Middle East, North African regions and the escalating debts in some European economies may threaten the global outlook ”.
Outflows for intermediate goods rose by 9.2 per cent, driven by higher mineral fuel payments.
Domestically, sectoral outcomes were mixed in the review period.
In light of recent events, the economic performance of our major trading partners is likely to remain mixed in 2011.
The US, Australian and Euro zone economies are expected to perform favourably with growth forecasts ranging from 1.6 to 3.2 per cent.
However, as a result of recent natural disasters, growth prospects for the New Zealand and Japanese economies have been revised downwards in 2011 to 1.1 and 1.4 per cent respectively.