Caption: Don Polye
By MATTHEW VARI
MEMBER for Kandep and former Treasurer, Don Polye, has called on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to not mislead the country on the current economic status of the country.
In response to the optimistic announcements and reassurances made by the PM in public and on the floor of Parliament, Mr Polye, in a press conference held last Sunday, said that it was shocking at the amount of misinformation the PM had on the status of the economy.
“The issues that are of concern to me are the way of which the Prime minister is managing the country’s economy- it is shocking,” Mr Polye said.
“In fact to the eyes of the economists who really know the mechanics of a country’s economy, the ins and outs of running any economy- who know about how the money system works, how the central bank is regulating the monetary policies, how the Department of Treasury is managing and handling the fiscal policy of government can tell and agree with me that the Prime minister has been absolutely wrong in his perception of how the country’s economy is doing.”
“His reading of the economy is all wrong- that is a major concern to me and all Papua New Guineans.”
The Kandep MP said that according to reports he had and that of government agencies- the government spending was going up to the roof, stating that current figures puts the country’s debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio at over 50 percent.
“According to reports that I have from records that the country’s debt to GDP ratio has gone up to over 45 percent of GDP, even some reports from government’s own systems have indicated that it has gone as far as 55 percent of GDP,” the former treasurer said.
“The Prime Minster compared PNG’s economy in terms of its debt to the dept levels of Japan, even comparing it to that of the European countries- he is absolutely wrong there, I can’t even believe that he is saying that.”
“Japan is the world’s number three economy, it is over US$18 trillion sized economy, at the moment because of its debt levels Japan is not growing, it is in recession.”
“The question the Prime Minister must ask is that is he using Japan as a good example to look at PNG’s economy definitely no.”
He said that the size of PNG’s economy is only K35 to K36 billion ($15-$16 billion) and was no where near Japan size to be used to dispel fears in the economy.
“The advice that I am giving the PM is this- you scale down on the spending spree that you are doing at present,” he added.
“You are spending money left right and center when you do not have that money- you are incurring debts after debts for our country going up to 50% of the GDP- it is unsustainable.”
“I urge the PM to not mislead the people and get some proper economic advisers- challenge him to look for better economic advisors himself, and I challenge him to listen to the National Research Institute, listen to the World Bank, including the International Monetary Fund.
The claim of the country’s good economic state are false as the debt levels are high and important legislations have not been put through, like the Soveriegn Wealth Fund, ICAC, those have not taken place.
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