Economy expected to grow by 3.3 per cent in 2020
By Hon. Ian Ling-Stuckey | January 16, 2020
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Minister for Treasury Ian Ling-Stuckey said the most critical parts of the economy are expected to grow by 3.3 per cent this year.
He said the growth is driven by a strong performance in the communications sector and broad-based growth in the agriculture, fishing and forestry sectors.
“In 2020, real non-resource growth is projected at 3.3 per cent.
This is the part of the economy that actually brings greatest benefit to our people.”
“This represents a growth rate just above the population growth rate of 3.1 per cent.
Going forward, the Marape Government is committed to lifting the non-resource GDP growth rate to at least 5 per cent per annum.
This is the minimum required to start improving the standards of living for our people.
“In 2020, the information and communication sector is expected to grow at 8.0 per cent reflecting better communications access flowing from the Coral Sea cable,” he said in a statement.
“Growth in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector is expected to be 3.4 per cent.
“The growth in agriculture is driven by the on-season in coffee, increased projected Palm Oil production, and increased cocoa yields from the ongoing revitalisation in the cocoa industry.
He said initiatives such as the K200 million SME allocation and the K200 million Connect PNG infrastructure funding to enable market access for rural farmers are expected to provide additional stimulus to the economy.
“Manufacturing sector growth is expected at 3.5 per cent, with initiatives in the electricity and water sectors also expected to contribute to above average growth rates.”
He said growth in the mining and quarrying is expected to be at 6.2 per cent.
However, the drag on the economy in 2020 is an expected fall in the oil and gas sector of 4.9 per cent.
“This reduction reflects moving back to normal production levels following a strong rebound in 2019 and the usual profile of maturing LNG fields.
The oil and gas sector fall is the reason for reducing the overall GDP growth rate down to 2 per cent.”
He said the Government was focused on improving the livelihoods of ordinary Papua New Guineans.
“Our policy attention is on increasing the incomes of our people with a particular focus on the agriculture, the fishing, the forestry, the tourism, the downstream processing and other sectors which link most strongly with improving the livelihoods of our people. “
“We will continue our work on establishing an appropriate policy environment for our vital resource sector which has so much potential to contributing the revenue and flow-on benefits required for PNG’s development,” he said.
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