PNG growth rate inflated by quake recovery: Economist

While the Asian Development Bank expects an economic upturn in Papua New Guinea, a veteran economist has a different view.
The ADB said growth was set to hit 3.7 per cent this year on the back of a surge in returns from the resource sector.
Foreign exchange was more available, while a newly signed LNG project promised a boost in foreign investment, it said.
But PNG Economics’ Paul Flanagan said the state of the economy was not so rosy. The underlying growth rate remains about 1.5 per cent and recovery from a devastating earthquake in 2018 is the reason for an apparent lift in the economy, Flanagan said.
“These are a mathematical rebound that you get whenever there is something such as an earthquake that undermines and takes production away for a period of time,” he said.
“In the next year, you expect the production to have returned to the earlier trend level and so that comes through as quite a strong growth number when all that has happened is that you are still on your previous trend path and that path hasn’t been keeping up with the population growth rates.”-RNZ