Sugar and Water, Loan Okay But No More, Inflation Up, Policeman Jailed, PM in Jakarta, Supermarkets Fined

N0306. SUGAR AND WATER. What with the meteoric rise in the price of sugar, due to it being imported from Thailand, and Lautoka and parts of the West being without water for 37 hours,  it's not been good news from Fiji this week. The worst part, for those without water, seems to have been that the Water Authority did not keep them informed of what was happening once their announced original 14 hours shutdown for repairs went on and on. Engineers have been working round the clock to fix the problem.  With luck, water should be back on by now.  The shutdown was to allow work on the upgrade of the Kashmir Reservoir to ensure sufficient pressure to supply areas that had received intermittent supply over the past few years. Eight schools were closed and angry parents, inconvenienced by the shutdown, said the Water Authority should have ensured schools were not affected.

N0307.  USP ECONOMIST ON THE $500m BOND LOAN. The Fiji Times has published another short piece on USP's last week's panel discussion the bond issue. Economist Dr Tiru Jayaraman  thought Fiji wise not to have accepted the IMF terms for a loan because this would have meant the too-early closure of non-viable public enterprises, having a balanced budget, reducing debt levels and operational costs. The global global bond issue had spared Government and the IMF of all these. But the need for reforms is still there, he said, with Fiji needing self-regulation and self-control.

Fiji's total debt is 75.9% of the gross domestic product (as of 2010). Government's expenditure is about 28.5% of the GDP with capital expenses only making up 5.9%. The trade imbalance is about $726million.

The economist advised the country to draw a timeline on the implementation of the reforms, analyze the effectiveness of the first (Qarase) global bond issue, and  independently analyse the Asian Development Bank and IMF loans once projects were completed. He also recommended the strengthening of external debt recording management system.

He said the repayment of the $500m second global bond issue in 2016 should be from Fiji's own foreign exchange reserves and not by another bond issue or an IMF loan. "The second bond should put an end to all bonds," he said. "Second bond should be the mother of all bonds."

N0308. INFLATION ROSE in February to 7.6%, mainly due to the increase in fuel and wheat products and the higher Value Added Tax rate.

N0309. COP JAILED FOR TWO YEARS. A Labasa police officer has  been jailed for two years four months for corrupt conduct, having been found guilty of seven counts of obtaining corrupt benefits in the sum of $307 from a Labasa businessman.

He is the fourth officer to be sacked in the Northern Division over the past week. The other officers were dismissed following convictions for assault.

N0310. PM IN JAKARTA. The PM will open the new Fiji Embassy in Jakarta today. The initiative is part of Government's Look North policy which is intended to reduce it dependence on traditional sources of aid, investment and co-operation such as Australia and New Zealand.

N0311. DIRTY TRICKS.  Three Suva supermarkets, taking advantage of the shortage of sugar, have been fined for forcing customers to buy groceries if they wanted to buy sugar from their shops.