{"id":94828,"date":"2016-08-26T11:26:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T15:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=94828"},"modified":"2016-08-26T11:26:43","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T15:26:43","slug":"fiji-maintains-rate-will-keep-accommodative-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2016\/08\/fiji-maintains-rate-will-keep-accommodative-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiji maintains rate, will keep accommodative policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
August 26, 2016<\/div>
\r\n<\/div><\/div>

By CentralBankNews.info<\/u><\/a>
\n    Fiji’s central bank left its Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) at 0.50 percent and said its “monetary policy will remain accommodative and focus on supporting the domestic economic recovery while the Bank will continue to monitor all macroeconomic developments and align monetary policy accordingly.”
    The Reserve Bank of Fiji, which has maintained its rate since October 2011, added that the bank’s twin objectives remain intact and the impact of this year’s natural disasters on inflation was expected to taper with the year-end inflation forecast still at “around 3.5 percent.”
    Fiji’s inflation rate rose to a 2016-high of 5.5 percent in July from 5.3 percent in June, mainly driven by shortages of items following the tropical cyclones and flooding, higher duties on alcohol and tobacco, and an increase in fuel prices.
    Fiji was hit by Tropical Cyclone Winston in February, the worst cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, leaving 42 people dead. The government estimated damage of <\/span>1 billion Fijian dollars, or US$460 million. Fiji was also hit by flooding in April.<\/span><\/span>
     The Reserve Bank added that Fiji’s foreign reserves amounted to $1.920.7 billion as of Aug. 24, enough to cover 5.3 months of imports, down from $1.978 billion as of July 28.
    Fiji’s economy – which grew by an annual 4.2 percent in 2015, down from 5.3 percent in 2014 – continues to be driven by strong consumption and investment, according to Barry Whiteside, governor and chairman of the central bank’s board.
    But Whiteside cautioned that subdued global growth could dampen remittances and tourism earnings though the bank is still forecasting an increase from last year’s record levels.
<\/a><\/p>\n

    The Reserve Bank of Fiji issued the following statement:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
“The Reserve Bank of Fiji Board at its August meeting decided to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate at 0.50 percent. <\/span>

<\/span> In making the decision, the Governor and the Chairman of the Board, Mr Barry Whiteside highlighted that <\/span>\u201c<\/span>the domestic economy continues to be driven by strong consumption and ongoing investment activity. Sectoral performances remain mixed. Apart from the sugar and timber sectors, most other sectors recorded higher output annually including gold, electricity and visitor arrivals. Financial conditions continue to be favourable indicated by adequate bank liquidity and low lending rates, while credit growth has slowed over the year<\/span>.\u201d <\/span>

<\/span> On the growth outlook, the Governor highlighted that <\/span>\u201c<\/span>the subdued global growth performances and prospects imply a possible dampening in our remittances and tourism earnings although annual <\/span>projections are still higher than last year\u2019s record levels<\/span>.<\/span>\u201d <\/span>

<\/span> The twin objectives of monetary policy remain intact. As of 24 August, 2016, foreign reserves were $1,920.7 million, sufficient to cover 5.3 months of retained imports. Reflecting the impact of the natural disasters, inflation increased for the fourth consecutive month in July to 5.5 percent. This was mostly driven by the shortages in market related items following the tropical cyclones and floods earlier this year, higher excise duty on alcoholic beverages and tobacco and the increase in fuel prices in July. The year-end inflation forecast remains at around 3.5 percent. Over the medium term, the impact from the natural disasters is expected to taper. Notwithstanding any significant risks from higher commodity prices, particularly crude oil and food, inflation is expected to <\/span>normalize<\/span>. <\/span>

<\/span> In conclusion, the Chairman stated that <\/span>\u201c<\/span>monetary policy will remain accommodative and focus on supporting the domestic economic recovery while the Bank will continue to monitor all macroeconomic developments and align monetary policy accordingly.<\/span>\u201d <\/span>

<\/span>    www.CentralBankNews.info<\/a><\/span>

<\/span>
<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By CentralBankNews.info     Fiji’s central bank left its Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) at 0.50 percent and said its “monetary policy will remain accommodative and focus on supporting the domestic economic recovery while the Bank will continue to monitor all macroeconomic developments and align monetary policy accordingly.”    The Reserve Bank of Fiji, which has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94829,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94828\/revisions\/94829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}