Roneel Lal
SUVA: The Permanent Secretary for Information, Sharon Smith-Johns, has refuted claims by economist Dr Wadan Narsey on the state of Fiji's economy and the poverty levels in the country.
Dr Narsey has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program that nearly one third of Fiji citizens will be living in poverty by next year based on his analysis of the 2008- 2009 household income and expenditure survey, even though the figures show that poverty has decreased in Fiji.
[Audio file attached to online story].
Smith-Johns says Dr Narsey has contradicted his own figures, ignoring the positives and only discussing the negatives.
Smith-Johns says that looking at his figures, Dr Narsey's own data reveals that poverty in Fiji has indeed been reduced between the period 2002-03 to 2008-09.
She says, however, in a recent interview he stated that the future for the Fiji economy looks extremely bleak and poverty looks set to rise further.
She says at the national level, poverty levels had fallen from 35 percent to 31 percent.
Smith-Johns says critics are "quick to jump on the media bandwagon", however, do they provide solutions or work with the government.
She says it is far too easy to sit behind a desk and look for all the negatives.
The Permanent Secretary says Professor Narsey also acknowledges the lack of data between 2004 and 2007, which 'begs the question how can he
possibly forecast the future of Fiji's economy". - Fijivillage.com/Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
