PM: Aust’s intervention assisted Govt’s economic policies

THE Australian government’s intervention to assist PNG with funding support for key infrastructure has assisted the Government’s expansionary economic policies, Prime Minister James Marape says.
Marape said this at the 37th Australia-PNG Business Forum and Trade Expo in Brisbane this week.
“In case you did not see it that is why Bank South Pacific declared their highest profit in 2021, posting over a billion kina in a year when the Porgera mine was still closed, Wafi-Golpu had not started and both Papua LNG and P’nyang LNG constructions had not started yet,” the Prime Minister told the forum.
“This shows that the use of our Government’s fiscal policies and effective operationalisation of our budgets plans have kept the PNG economy functional.
“To put numbers to our Government spending, our combined 2019, 2020 and 2021 budgets saw aggregate Government expenditures to the tune of K56 billion.
“This kept our small, but growing economy, lubricated with liquidity supplied from Government expenditures like Connect PNG, arrears and debt settlements, service improvement funds transferred to districts and provinces, record funding to health and education, paying our public services in time including clearing back log of retirement funds are just some transactions that enabled financial life in our economy.”
Marape said the country has done well over the years in terms of economic growth regardless of the fact it was a developing economy. “In the last three years, despite our economy’s exposure to global economic and health shocks, we performed much better than most developing nations,” he said.
“Our inflation averaged under 5.5 per cent.
“Our foreign reserves in Central Bank are the highest-ever since 1975 at K10 billion-plus.
“Our budget and fiscal management is running congruent to reforms we are doing with International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and all bilateral partners like Australia and Japan.”