Economy expected to rebound

By PETER ESILA
KINA Bank expects the Papua New Guinea economy to rebound this year, with positive gross domestic product (GPD) growth, chief executive officer Greg Pawson says.
Pawson said in Port Moresby yesterday that Government’s endorsements of resource projects like Papua LNG with others to follow would bring foreign investment into the country over the next several years.
“Well, firstly the economy is expected to rebound and the bright light on the horizon is the Government’s endorsement of the Papua LNG Project which will bring a investment into the country over the next several years together with a number of other projects pending finalisation.”
Pawson added that they were watching the current Russia/Ukraine conflict closely and would continue to assess any potential geo-political risks, however rising commodity prices could only auger well for exports but this was offset by an increasing inflationary impact on imports.
He said Kina needed to leverage its strong organic growth opportunity in PNG and the positive market sentiment towards its brand to continue to build profits and a capital base to ensure further investments.
“Our overall market share increased to 16 per cent (up from 11 per cent from when we completed the ANZ acquisition) but there’s still a big gap between us and BSP at around at 65 per cent.
“This is a major structural issue for the PNG financial services system that we were seeking to address by acquiring Westpac’s Pacific businesses.”