Kirisitiana Uluwai 
[Source: iStock]
Economist Doctor Neelesh Gounder reassures that inflation in Australia and New Zealand will not affect remittances to Fiji as anticipated.
Dr Gounder says there are factors that support this prediction.
He says this is why predictions by multilateral institutions that remittances are expected to go down can be challenged.
“I’m not too sure about that, because during COVID, we also thought and some multilateral institution predicted that remittances is expected to go down but that did not happen in this part of the world. And certainly in Fiji we received more remittances in 2020 compared to 2019.”
Dr Gounder says it’s not very clear how inflation or rising prices of goods and services affecting Australia and New Zealand will affect Fiji.
“On a broader note, inflation is a challenging issue for many countries around the world. Especially starting with COVID19 restrictions and some of those constraints continued to impede economic recovery around the world. And some of those constraints continued to play a role in some of those higher prices of goods and services that we are seeing.”
The Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad confirmed that remittances are one of the fastest-growing players in Fiji’s economy.
“We’ve seen in the case of Fiji a significant increase in remittances, this year alone we’re projecting that remittances would reach close to $1.2, $1.3 billion.”
Remittances have been the largest foreign exchange earner and have helped keep the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are projections that it will continue to grow.
Reports show that it is now a billion-dollar industry in Fiji.
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