Economic growth up by 3.9%

Solomon Islands has witnessed successful growth in its economy last year by 3.9 percent up from 3.7 percent in 2017.

The Governor of Central Bank of Solomon Islands, CBSI, Denton Rarawa, announced the growth estimates at the launch of the CBSI 2018 Annual Report today in Honiara.

“This performance is driven mainly by services such as wholesale and retail, transportation and financial services” he said.

“There was also positive outcomes in the primary and secondary sectors, forestry, fisheries and construction. ”

As a foundation for robust, broad-based and inclusive growth, the Governor encourages all the private sector, non-government organisations, civil society groups, communities and citizens to support our new government in its policy efforts to grow the economy.

He said this was crucial as the economic forecast for the next four years was for an average growth of 4.5 percent.

But he said this growth rate was still inadequate to support our current high population growth rate.

” The growth rate is still slow and will not transform our economy,” he said.

“We have a rapidly growing population that will demand more resources and support, and I believe we really need to address this.”