PM: 3pc good

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill agrees with the World Bank’s forecast of a 3 per cent growth in the national economy this year, saying it is in line with the national budget.
The bank’s January 2017 Global Economic Prospects report said the projection was an increase from the 2.4 per cent growth last year.
O’Neill said while the rate of growth had slowed somewhat – compared to the boom of the past 14 years – “it is still a much larger economy than it was previously”.
He attributed the 14-year economic boom to the favourable commodity prices, plus the construction, establishment and commissioning of the PNG LNG project.
He said today, there was more activity, more opportunity “but also more risks associated with being a part of the global energy and commodity equation”.
“Global financial markets will become more certain in the medium term as the after effects of Brexit and the United States elections takes more shape,” he said in a statement last night.
“At this stage, it seems to be positive and we would hope that it continues to be so. The price of oil has normalised somewhat and gold, copper and other agricultural prices have actually improved from 12 months ago.”
He said with the approval of one or two of the four potential resource projects available, “the construction efforts alone will push the economic growth projections into double digits again”.
“But the Government has taken a cautious approach with these projects to ensure that country as a whole is in a better position to exploit the opportunities for people of PNG,” he said.
“For the short to medium-term, PNG must still continue to invest in these development enablers prior to the establishment of the next resource projects.”
He said some commentators were confusing the size of the economy with the rate at which our economy was growing. The State had been investing in the economic enablers such as health, education, law and order and key infrastructure.