I suggest that the following five developments are the central ones in need of an explanation. 1. Why did the US current account deficit start to widen sharply after 1997, reach such a high percentage of GDP, and yet has been relatively easily financed? 2. Why has Asia run such large current account surpluses and built up such a high level of international reserves?
As a resource-based economy, our greatest competitive advantage lies in the development of our resource-based sectors. This means that we need to continue to work together as a nation to grow Fiji and increase the production and utilisation of our own natural resources for both domestic consumption, as well as exports.