THE International Monetary Fund has acknowledged that Papua New Guinea’s economy is 20 per cent smaller than it would have been if it had continued growing at its pre-Covid, pre-2019 trend.
The statement comes as former prime minister Peter O’Neill dismisses criticism, highlighting a threefold increase in GDP under his watch and a rise in gold prices during his tenure.
The IMF’s assessment has drawn sharp reactions from opposition leaders, who accuse the government of mismanaging the economy.
“The IMF’s resident representative Mr Sohrab Rafiq has handed down his organisations latest economic update plainly admitting “the economy is essentially 20 percent smaller than it otherwise would have been if it had continued to grow at its pre-Covid, pre-2019 trend” said O’Neill, Leader of the People’s National Congress Party and Member for Ialibu-Pangia.
“Despite all the talking from this Government and their proxy controllers of Treasury, the IMF, it is quite something to see this backhanded compliment from the head of the IMF that the heavily criticised economic management under my watch has been recognised as not too bad after all.”
“The headline numbers cannot be denied – the facts are that in 2011 the total GDP was just under 30 billion Kina and in 2019, when the leadership changed to Marape, the economy was nearly three times bigger at 85 billion Kina. Gold price, a major influence on PNGs GDP was on average US$1250 per ounce during my term of government compared to US$2500 from 2019 to 2025 during the Marape government.”
“In simple terms, Marape and Ling-Stuckey and their friends at the IMF have enjoyed the benefits of a doubling of the average gold price and yet have failed to translate these upswings in the economy to improvements in our peoples’ lives. Instead, we are much worse off with rampant crime and corruption and a cost-of-living crisis, over indebtedness and a chronic shortage of medicines; sliding currency and a drought on jobs.”
“I would not still be here in politics if this dreadful government would just do their jobs and focus on building our country and providing decent lives for our people. I fight on because it is clear to me that we are going backwards. It was not perfect during my leadership but even the IMF now admits the economy would be 20 per cent bigger today if our strategy of managing the economy had continued.”