Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery

Reflecting a strong global economic rebound, Papua New Guinea (PNG) reversed its downward economic growth trajectory in 2021. The World Bank estimates that the PNG economy contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020 before returning to positive economic grow...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099810003082239069/P177337028a2ea020b60f0230e16386050
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37141
id okr-10986-37141
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-371412022-09-15T19:49:46Z Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery World Bank ECONOMIC UPDATE ECONOMIC GROWTH MONETARY POLICY COVID-19 RECOVERY FISCAL CONSOLIDATION DOMESTIC REVENUE MOBILIZATION TAXATION TAX ASSESSMENT EDUCATION SPENDING PAPUA NEW GUINEA EXTRATIVE SECTOR DEBT Reflecting a strong global economic rebound, Papua New Guinea (PNG) reversed its downward economic growth trajectory in 2021. The World Bank estimates that the PNG economy contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020 before returning to positive economic growth of 1 percent in 2021. Domestic agricultural production continued unabated through the pandemic, and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related mobility restrictions were not as severe as in some other economies. However, gross domestic product (GDP) growth has lagged global and regional averages. PNG’s economic performance in 2021 was constrained by falling gold and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production that resulted in a decline in extractive sector output for a second consecutive year. Despite reversing the trajectory of the widening fiscal deficit, it remained large at over 7 percent GDP. Public debt exceeded 50 percent of GDP, and the country is at high risk of debt distress, according to the latest World Bank - International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt sustainability analysis. Despite an accommodative monetary policy, private sector lending remained flat due to subdued economic conditions. The current account surplus remained substantial owing to depressed imports and high commodity prices. However, due to the large debt repayments of the extractive sector, shortages of foreign currency remain a key problem for PNG’s economy. 2022-03-16T18:40:03Z 2022-03-16T18:40:03Z 2022-02 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099810003082239069/P177337028a2ea020b60f0230e16386050 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37141 English Papua New Guinea Economic Update;8 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC Working Paper Publications & Research East Asia and Pacific Papua New Guinea
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC UPDATE
ECONOMIC GROWTH
MONETARY POLICY
COVID-19 RECOVERY
FISCAL CONSOLIDATION
DOMESTIC REVENUE MOBILIZATION
TAXATION
TAX ASSESSMENT
EDUCATION SPENDING PAPUA NEW GUINEA
EXTRATIVE SECTOR DEBT
spellingShingle ECONOMIC UPDATE
ECONOMIC GROWTH
MONETARY POLICY
COVID-19 RECOVERY
FISCAL CONSOLIDATION
DOMESTIC REVENUE MOBILIZATION
TAXATION
TAX ASSESSMENT
EDUCATION SPENDING PAPUA NEW GUINEA
EXTRATIVE SECTOR DEBT
World Bank
Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery
geographic_facet East Asia and Pacific
Papua New Guinea
relation Papua New Guinea Economic Update;8
description Reflecting a strong global economic rebound, Papua New Guinea (PNG) reversed its downward economic growth trajectory in 2021. The World Bank estimates that the PNG economy contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020 before returning to positive economic growth of 1 percent in 2021. Domestic agricultural production continued unabated through the pandemic, and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related mobility restrictions were not as severe as in some other economies. However, gross domestic product (GDP) growth has lagged global and regional averages. PNG’s economic performance in 2021 was constrained by falling gold and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production that resulted in a decline in extractive sector output for a second consecutive year. Despite reversing the trajectory of the widening fiscal deficit, it remained large at over 7 percent GDP. Public debt exceeded 50 percent of GDP, and the country is at high risk of debt distress, according to the latest World Bank - International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt sustainability analysis. Despite an accommodative monetary policy, private sector lending remained flat due to subdued economic conditions. The current account surplus remained substantial owing to depressed imports and high commodity prices. However, due to the large debt repayments of the extractive sector, shortages of foreign currency remain a key problem for PNG’s economy.
format Working Paper
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery
title_short Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery
title_full Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery
title_fullStr Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery
title_full_unstemmed Papua New Guinea Economic Update, February 2022 : Navigating a Fragile Recovery
title_sort papua new guinea economic update, february 2022 : navigating a fragile recovery
publisher Washington, DC
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099810003082239069/P177337028a2ea020b60f0230e16386050
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37141
_version_ 1764486617115918336