Papua New Guinea

While advanced economies generate the vast majority of insurance and reinsurance business, emerging markets are posting higher rates of growth. Complementing this underlying trend is a strong and expanding interest in catastrophic risk, which by nature tends to pertain to emerging markets. This is coming alongside fast-paced, sector-...

Papua New Guinea’s banking sector experienced a mixed year in 2017, with commercial bank assets declining after four consecutive years of growth. Total loans to the private sector also fell against a backdrop of subdued economic activity, even as Bank South Pacific (BSP), the country’s leading commercial bank, recorded a strong rise in lending...

In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of humanity was living in urban areas. Perhaps the most remarkable observation about this trend is the speed at which it has happened: as recently as 1900 urban areas accounted for 13% of the global population. Towns and cities are seen as the crucibles of opportunity for many rural...

On the back of rising demand for metals due to the development of electric vehicles and storage batteries, the search for new sources of supply has grown in recent years. Home to significant reserves of the copper, nickel and cobalt required, Papua New Guinea is looking to expand production with the world’s first deep-sea mining project and...

Although commercial banking assets and business lending dropped in 2017 as a result of macroeconomic headwinds, the sector has performed well in recent years. Notably, Bank of South Pacific (BSP), which is PNG’s biggest lender, recorded robust asset, lending, and profit growth, with returns on equity rising to a new highs in 2017. At the same...