Think before you speak

We are grateful for the attempt by Senator Bole to satisfy us that Fiji's senators are a hardworking and productive group of unelected people. When he attacked this newspaper in the Senate on Tuesday he gave what he called a brief explanation of how the Senate continued working after its 20-minute sitting. This, he said, took the form of informal sessions. He hoped this would satisfy The Fiji Times.&nbsp

Fiji economic survey: low growth the new normal?

This article reviews the performance of the Fijian economy from 2015 to 2019. After several years of decent growth (around 5%), GDP growth fell to as low as 0.5% in 2019. Earlier hopes that a ‘new normal’ of GDP growth of around 5% per annum had been established have faded. The principle reason for this, it is argued, is a lack of business confidence, which is associated with the 2018 elections, but more fundamentally with a lack of faith in Fiji's political system. At the same time, the government has also been forced to embark on a course of fiscal consolidation, as announced in the 2019–2020 National Budget, due to disappointing revenue collections and undisciplined expenditure in earlier years. The banking sector is hamstrung by a lack of liquidity. This article is written to understand the Fijian economy pre‐COVID‐19, but with the sharp downturn in economic growth in particular due to the impact of the COVID‐19 virus on tourism—Fiji's most important sector—and no room for fiscal expansion, growth prospects in Fiji are currently not bright. An improved medium‐term outlook will require greater confidence (both political and economic) to increase investment, both foreign and domestic. Reforms to reduce the costs of doing business will also help

THE EFFECT OF DIETARY PORTION CUT ON THE BODY FAT OF ADULTS

Objective- The study was planned to determine the effect of dietary portion cut on the body fat of individuals with passage of time Methods- Total 323 adults with general good health underwent dietary intervention to decrease the portion size of the diet they were taking to reduce calorie intake to 1200kcal/day. In order to determine the effect of treatment, a new variable i.e. rate of change of various dependent variables (BMI, body fat percent & muscle mass percentage) were determined for each individual. A multiple linear regression model was run to determine the effect of independent variables (age, gender, initial measurement of dependent variables) on the rate of change of dependent variables. Results- The mean rate of change of BMI was hardly influenced by age, gender or initial BMI. The rate of change of body fat percent was hardly influenced by age as indicated by a low  coefficient close to zero, although statistically significant (p=0.0236).The coefficient for female indicated that the mean rate of change of body fat percent in  females was higher(-0.0532) as compared to males (-0.021) keeping other variables fixed,  and the effect was statistically significant (p=0.0028).The initial body fat percent had also significant effect on the rate of change of body fat  percent (p=< 0.0001).The initial muscle mass percent had significant effect on the rate of change of muscle mass percent of individuals (p=0.0032). Conclusion- The dietary intervention of portion cut to decrease calorie intake results in significant decrease in body fat percent in females in comparison to males