Economy will almost double by 2017: PM

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill rebutting the Opposition reply in parliament.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, November 13, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)



PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill rebutted at figures given by Opposition Leader, Don Polye, regarding the GDP of the nation in his Budget Reply on Tuesday- stating that the economy is well on the way to almost double in 2017.

With Mr Polye claiming that the economy’s GDP has been as sham, he calculated the current economy’s size at k46.4 billion in 2016.

“The opposition projects will be K47.3 billion in 2017 at the 2% growth as projected by treasury,” Mr Polye said.

“The Government’s own figures, the size of the would be at a 2% growth rate, K1.2 billion, getting the figures the present GDP is at k52.1 billion, therefore the size in 2017 will be K52.2 billion by the govt’s own projections, converting the K52.24 billion to US dollars at the current exchange rate of 0.31 to only US$16.5 billion.”

The PM then responded that figured, vetted by development partners, over the last 4 years into 2017 have predicted a K74.9 billion economy.

“I just want to vet even the recent visit by IMF (International Monetary Fund) also agreed about the growth of our country,” the PM said.

“When we took office in 2012 and the first year of performance, we had a GDP of 47.4 billion, in fact when the opposition leader was treasurer our economy grew at about 8% and 9% growth in 2013.”

“In 2014 the economy GDP grew to K56.8 billion in 2014. 2015 it grew to 64.1 billion, 2016 this year, and by the end of the year it is expected to grow to K67.1 billion and in 2017 it is supposed to grow to K74.9 billion.”

“What it indicates to me is that we have almost doubled the size of our economy from 2013 today.”

O’Neill pointed out that it was a remarkable achievement by global standards.

“These are figures that have been vetted by all the international development partners to suggest that our economy continues to grow.”

“Yes there are challenging times but when you go around the country you can see construction work going everywhere, whether it be in the districts or the wards, the provinces.”

“When you see cranes they are creating employment for our people, the economy is continuing to grow.”

He highlighted the biggest growth in the year in 2015 when the local economy grew to almost 12% just over the 11%mark.

“Of course we budgeted for a complete slowdown 2016 down to 2% but that is a very conservative estimate.”

“I can assure you that the figures at the end of the year will be much much better,” said the PM optimistically.