At the end of January, official foreign reserves stood at around $737.5 million, sufficient to cover 3 months.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji Economic Review for the month ended January 2009, stated that for 2009 the trade deficit is expected to widen as exports are expected to slow down significantly by 0.8 percent while imports are predicted to grow by 3.3 percent.

The review added that domestic exports alone are expected to decline by 1.3 percent in 2009.

For 2009, the year end inflation may slow down to around 4.5 percent with downside risks, underpinned by declining commodity prices, relatively lower trading partner inflation and expected spare capacity in the domestic economy.

It stated this all could be part of the global economy entering into a severe economic downturn in the second half of 2008.