Fiji's inflation rate likely to drop to 5% by year-end: PM

Suva, Sep 12 (IANS) Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said the country's inflation rate is likely to drop to 5 per cent by year-end, 3.1 per cent in 2023, and 2.4 per cent in 2024, state media reported on Monday."We are positive enough that the oil prices will drop as well over the next few months," Xinhua news agency quoted the Prime Minister as saying.Fiji's inflation rate was relatively high during the second half of the 2021-22 financial year because of Covid-19 restrictions and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Bainimarama said.He has therefore reminded Fijians to be wary of evolving global issues, as the world continues to feel the ripple effects of the increasing prices of food and oil.Bainimarama said the inflation rate is forecast to drop by December, including the prices of selected imported food and oil.The government has reportedly set aside 60 million Fijian dollars ($27 million) in this financial year, to cushion the economic impacts.A stronger-than-expected tourism recovery prompted the Reserve Bank of Fiji to recently upgrade its GDP growth forecasts to 12.4 per cent in 2022, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous December 2021 estimate, and 9.2 per cent in 2023, up 0.7 percentage points.
--IANS ksk/

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