The Fiscal and Monetary Review (Again?)

I have been neglecting my main library at bruneiresources.com to the point that visitors on a daily average there has dropped lower than at this blogsite which is a first (553 for the bruneiresources.com versus 629). The bruneiresources.com as the main library used to average around 1,000+ daily. The last time I updated anything was the royal wedding pictures and helping to host the Brunei Currency Board Gallery's temporary website.

At the moment I am uploading the entire Brunei Laws which is on pdf format for which I am very, no, extremely grateful to my legal friend; the gazettes which contained the amendments to the laws, also on pdf format; and a few other interesting publications including the Fiscal and Monetary Review Annual 2005 which was released last month by the Ministry of Finance. Because I am too busy doing all this, this will be a short entry today.

I think I wrote about the Fiscal and Monetary Review already in the past. The FMR as the MOF people called it for short is one of two publications released by the Government which actually tells you the state of the government finances, the economic situation and anything related to the Brunei economy. The other publication is the Brunei Economic Bulletin (known as BEB) released by the Economic Planning and Development Department of the Prime Miinster's Office. I have made these two publications ever since it started on pdf format from my main library at bruneiresources.com at this link.

The FMR Annual Report 2005 contained all that you need to know what happened to Brunei finances in the year 2005 - the fiscal sector talks about the fiscal position of the government's finance, the revenues it gets, where its spends it; the monetary and banking sector developments talks about the monetary developments such as exchange rate viz-a-viz against other currencies, money in circulation M0, M1, M2 etc, interest rates (getting lower), banking system (increasing loans), the direction of the lending, loans (this got BB headline coverage last year when I mentioned the amount during a speech which I gave) and all sorts of other data. For those who are interested in the Brunei economy, it's a worthwhile publication to read to know more about the state of the Brunei's economy and government finances.

Though I have to admit that the FMR still lacked certain things. I guess the most important is the absence of some of the analysis. The FMR gave you the facts but not the reasons, so for example you will read M0 going up and down but no analysis why it's going up and down and what effect this will have on the economy. This is an area that the FMR which has been published since 2004 need to do to bring it to a higher level. The FMR Annual 2005 in particular covers the calendar year 2005 but the government fiscal year has shifted from January-December to April-March, so the report only covers up to Q3 of the government 2005/2006 fiscal year. So the last quarter is not covered in this annual FMR. Again that's probably something they need to look at. In the meantime to all the blog readers, do click on that link and read all the past and present issues of the FMR and BEB.
PS. Sorry, today's entry is not that short either, maybe tomorrow's one will be short.

Comments

baz said…
having the LoB on pdf here would be great! thanks very much Mr BR!
Friday, October 13, 2006 7:02:00 AM
Anonymous said…
Hi... where can we get LoB in pdf form? do you publish at an official website where we can download it?
Thursday, October 19, 2006 12:35:00 PM
Anonymous said…
I spoke to SJ on this point and asked him to read your website. He told me he totally agree with your points. The main problems for SJ is to do with getting financial approval early enough. They cannot start with the promotion campaign until the budget has been approved. All promotional campaign he says are tied into the budget. Every year he faces same problem where they cannot begin their media campaign to promote the sports event. Very frustrating he says, but he agrees with your point totally. Of course it makes sense he says. Brunei Golf Open he says have yield great returns due to more Koreans coming to Brunei playing golf. More are coming he says. Thanks to Sports Tourism.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:33:00 AM
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