The Fiji Development Bank profits dropped from $8.1m in 2017 to $7.4m in 2018.

This was highlighted by FDB Chief Executive Mark Clough while presenting their 2018 annual report to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economic Affairs.

Clough says despite the reduction in profits, this is an acceptable result as FDB’s assets grew from $402m to $467m last year.

He also highlighted that these figures also had an effect on the increase in FDB’s loan portfolios.

“Our loan portfolio increased from $438m to $487m. Within that loan portfolio, the mix is approximately 45 percent in the focused sectors dominated by agriculture and 55 percent in the non-focused sectors usually dominated by real-estates, resorts, manufacturing in the line.”

In 2018, FDB had approximately 4,100 loan accounts in the focused sector and 1,050 loan accounts in the non-focused sector.

FDB processed 1,600 applications worth $122m last year alone.