26 Sep 2017

Economist welcomes apparent new openness in PNG Govt

From , 6:04 am on 26 September 2017
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An economist with a long interest in the Papua New Guinea economy has welcomed signs of a new openness of the PNG government.

A director of Indo-Pacific Public Policy and Economics, Paul Flanagan, was speaking after an interim report by the International Monetary Fund after a visit to PNG earlier this month was made public.

He says this would not have happened without government approval and is a change from the O'Neill government's previous treatment of IMF reports.

The IMF report was critical, saying the government needed to rein in the district support grants and that the coming supplementary budget would not balance the accounts.

Some of this has since been contradicted by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill but Mr Flanagan to Don Wiseman the open approach taken by Treasurer Sam Abel is reassuring.