It is estimated that economic growth registered over a nine-year period has been wiped out by COVID-19 and its wider impact on Fiji.

Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor, Ariff Ali while speaking at the Top Executives Conference highlighted that the pandemic has been the worst crisis that Fiji’s economy has suffered.

He adds, however, that things are slowly looking up.

“The impact of COVID has wiped outgrowth over the last nine years. Over the last two months or so, we’ve seen a significant rise in employment numbers. In November 2019, the total salaries and wages for informal employment were just below $300m, in September (2021) it was about 90% of November 2019. Hopefully in the next few months, we’ll get very close to where we started.”

Ali says key economic indicators such as VAT collections, consumption, employment and construction have started to show positive signs.
Job losses at the height of the pandemic are estimated at 150,000 in the formal and informal sectors.

Ali says while the government’s income dropped significantly over two years, it managed to provide social protections by borrowing more money.

“You cannot have an increase in expenditure for social welfare, and at the same time say we want the debt to be, low. You cannot say in a period of large unemployment that you want to raise taxes. This is the challenge that any government would face and you have to find that balance.”

The Reserve Bank Governor adds while the government has increased offshore borrowings, it has managed to secure lower rates than local institutions.