Fiji’s foreign reserves stands at $3.5 billion (8 months of retained imports), and is expected to remain adequate in the near to medium term.

Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali said this yesterday highlighting that the Fijian economy continued to benefit from the marked recovery in tourism.

“Key sectoral indicators reflect this positive trend with consumption spending on the upward trajectory, supported by increased disposable incomes and inward remittances along with higher tourism-related spending.”

Mr Ali said Fiji’s current excess banking system liquidity stood at $2.6 billion and last month, the annual headline inflation rate stood at 5.4 per cent.

“Given the outcomes so far, the domestic economy is projected to grow by 15.6 per cent in 2022,” he said.

“The labour market continues to progress towards pre-pandemic levels. Private sector credit continues its annual ascent for the ninth straight month in September.”

With a strong economic recovery, the Fijian financial system continues to be stable.

“Developments in the financial sector are clearly evident in the growth of our financial institutions,” he said.

Mr Ali highlighted that the insurance industry, performance has been strong.

Launch 

While launching the LICI (Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI) Fiji) Portal and Mobile Application yesterday, Mr Ali said the timing was perfect as the Central bank continued to drive the reform of the National Payment System.

The payment system will be finalised later this month with the upgraded Real Time Gross Settlement and Central Security Deposit systems going live.

“The launch of this new LICI Portal and App augurs well with the RBF’s phased approach for the international payment system which would also enable customers to utilize a more secure and faster digital platform,” Mr Ali said.

He thanked LICI management for their continued commitment to better serving the Fijian people.

LICI Fiji operations general manager Pradeep Shenoy said the customer portal app would be very useful to the customers.

The portal would empower the customer to be self-reliant in accessing all the information.

Oceanic Communications Limited general manager Nitesh Chandra said it took a lot of team effort to be able to deliver to

Mr Chandra said their continuous collaborations led to the success of the development and delivery of the app for LICI customers.

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