Papua New Guinea

Although still fledgling, Papua New Guinea’s capital markets have strong prospects for growth as the economy looks forward to significant foreign currency inflows linked to the liquefied natural gas project and the development of new resource projects. With 13 dual-listed stocks on the exchange, share prices on the Port Moresby Stock Exchange are highly dependent on movements in foreign...

Despite significant challenges linked to poor infrastructure, inadequate credit information and a largely rural population, commercial lenders are developing innovative means of broadening the sector’s reach. Framed by the government and the country’s central bank, the National Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy Strategy encourages private banks, microfinance institutions, non-bank...

Buoyed by high commodity export revenues and, since 2009 the development of the Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas project, GDP growth has remained above 6% since 2007, reaching 8.9% in 2011 and 8.1% in 2012. A heavyweight among the Pacific Island states, PNG, together with Fiji, accounted for 80% of regional GDP in 2013, as per UN figures. Agriculture, fisheries and forestry made up the...

Although lower international commodity prices are impacting the pipeline of projects in the traditionally dominant mining sector, Papua New Guinea’s emergence as a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter in 2014 has attracted global attention, with a second landmark LNG project moving towards a final investment decision in 2016. Construction of the PNG LNG project has increased the country’...

Some 80% of Papua New Guinea’s population lives in rural areas, which includes huge rain forests, rugged mountains and steep river valleys. Indeed, the difficulty of the terrain is a major reason why there are some 850 different native languages in the country, as clans and tribes have inhabited territories that are often close, but largely inaccessible, to each other. Comprising the eastern...