Papua New Guinea Statutory interest on debts and damages

What this value means

REFUSAL — there is no Papua New Guinean figure that can honestly be served as 'the' statutory interest rate. Anything quoted as a flat PNG rate (8% is the number most often repeated) is a judicial award, not a prescribed rate. WHAT THE 2015 ACT ACTUALLY DOES: (1) Its application clause limits it to COURT ORDERS AGAINST THE STATE made on or after 1 January 2014 (s. 2), yet s. 7 repealed the general Judicial Proceedings (Interest on Debts and Damages) Act (Chapter 52) outright — so the statute that used to govern private-party judgments is gone and its replacement is addressed to State matters. (2) For post-judgment interest it fixes no percentage: interest runs 'at the prescribed rate' (s. 6(1)) 'unless the court otherwise orders', and no rate-prescribing instrument under the 2015 Act could be located. (3) The only hard numbers in the Act are CEILINGS ON THE STATE: pre-judgment interest against the State 'shall not exceed 2% yearly' (s. 4(2)), and that 2% ceiling applies even where the claim arises from a contract or mercantile usage carrying a higher rate (s. 4(3)); post-judgment interest against the State is likewise capped at 2% yearly (s. 6(2)). A judgment entered contrary to those limits is a NULLITY and liable to be set aside on the application of the State's lawyer, the registrar or any party (ss. 4(4), 6(6)). PRE-JUDGMENT INTEREST IS DISCRETIONARY IN ALL CASES: under s. 4(1) the court 'may order a rate as it thinks proper' on all or part of the debt or damages for all or part of the period between accrual of the cause of action and judgment — subject to s. 5, which bars interest on interest, disapplies the section where interest is payable as of right by agreement or otherwise (except against the State), and preserves the rule on damages for dishonour of a bill of exchange. PNG courts commonly settle on 8% per annum, and have also awarded 4% and 2% depending on the case; none of these is a statutory rate. TIMING TRAPS AGAINST THE STATE (s. 6(5)): no interest runs on a damages judgment until a CERTIFICATE OF JUDGMENT is served on the State; none runs on taxed costs until a CERTIFICATE OF TAXATION is served; payment is deemed made on the date the cheque is drawn; and where an award is increased on appeal, interest runs only on the increase, from the date the appellate judgment takes effect. GENERAL 30-DAY GRACE: on a common law claim, if damages are paid within 30 days of service of the direction, or costs within 30 days of service of the order ascertaining them, no post-judgment interest is payable unless the court orders otherwise (ss. 6(3), 6(4)). NO LATE-PAYMENT REGIME: nothing gives a supplier default interest on an overdue invoice outside contract.

Get it programmatically

curl https://ausref.dev/v1/pg/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://ausref.dev/v1/pg/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/pg/statutory-interest

Other Papua New Guinea series: Kina Facility Rate (KFR) · Goods and Services Tax (GST) standard rate · GST registration threshold · National minimum wage (hourly) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax brackets (resident individuals) · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Samoa · Solomon Islands · Tonga · Vanuatu · Australia · all 8