Economist Paul Flanagan Photo: ANU
An economist says a decline in the Papua New Guinea economy has accelerated in recent years, and the country needs to embrace a new development path.
The principal of PNG Economics, Paul Flanagan, was speaking as the country prepares for a possible change of leadership.
He says his assessment is that the country's economic statistics have been corrupted to show the government in a positive light, but the reality is living standards have fallen by 10 percent since 2014.
"Unfortunately they have been going backwards in PNG quite recently, continuing, unfortunately, a trend since independence where those numbers have collapsed by about one-third since the time of independence - so a new development path is required," he said.
Mr Flanagan said while the resource sector has more than doubled its income in recent times, most of this money goes offshore.
