Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Thumbs up for PNG economy

Posted at 23:50 on 06 October, 2009 UTC

Papua New Guinea’s ability to effectively manage the global financial meltdown has been given support by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, the ANZ.

The Post Courier newspaper reports that the country’s economic growth potential was highlighted by the bank’s CEO Mike Smith on his arrival in the country this week.

Mr Smith says PNG is weathering the global economic slowdown well with real GDP growth of 6.5 per cent predicted for 2010.

He says the ANZ is looking forward to working with clients in PNG to help them capitalise on the opportunities this presents.

Mr Smith says this includes the growing trade and business flows with Asia which was worth more than 1.1 billion US dollars in bilateral trade in 2008, with the bulk of that conducted with China.