Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad says the government must find a staggering one billion dollars to service the public debt of close to $10 billion in the upcoming financial year.

He says this is almost the size of our entire economy.

He says they need about $536 million interest to service this debt.

“We need $536 million for interest payment and another $516 million for principal payment alone. In other words one dollar in every in every four in this budget must now be spent on servicing government debt.”

The Finance Minister says nearly 25 percent of the budget this year will go towards servicing debt which remains one of the biggest challenges.

[ Source : Fiji Government]