The government has continued to reduce its borrowings from the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF).

This has been stated in FNPF’s 2008 Annual Report.

It is stated that total government borrowing through bonds for the financial year amounted to $182 million compared $219.97 million for the same period in 2007.

The Annual Report stated that the government used the same strategy as in 2007 to reduce government borrowings and restructuring their debt.

Meanwhile, FNPF Chief Executive Officer Aisake Taito said in his report that the impact of the Reserve Bank’s directive to repatriate offshore funds in 2006 continued to affect the asset allocation of funds with the political and economic environment and that it was extremely difficult to correct the imbalance.

Taito said most of FNPF’s offshore term deposits were recalled as a result of the RBF directive to repatriate funds in 2006.

However due to the portfolio rebalancing exercise carried out in 2008, the balance of offshore term deposits portfolio increased to $48.33 million compared to $2.5 million in 2007.