Double digit growth expected, Fiji's economic recovery is much stronger than earlier expected – PS Economy

Permanent Secretary for Economy, Shiri Gounder says the Fijian economy is expected to recover much faster than earlier expected, and register a double digit growth this year supported by a strong rebound in tourism, pick up in private sector confidence and strong consumption activity.

Gounder says similar sentiments have been shared by international financial institutions like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and more recently by Moody's which has upgraded Fiji's credit outlook from negative to stable.

He says the recent change in outlook by Moody's is in line with the strong rebound in the Fijian economy and Government's fiscal consolidation efforts to put our debt on a downward path.

Gounder says the Macro-economic Committee is currently reviewing the growth forecast and new numbers are expected by mid-November.

The Permanent Secretary says the September 2022 visitor arrivals data released shows that arrivals are back at around 90 percent of pre COVID numbers.

He says the forward booking for the next 6 months are also promising.

Visitor arrivals for September is 72,657, representing 89.3 percent of September 2019 levels.

On a cumulative basis from January to September, visitor arrivals is 426,934. This is 63.3 percent of arrivals in the same period of 2019.

Australian arrivals is 116.9 percent, New Zealand is 94.8 percent and USA is 76.2 percent of September 2019 levels.

For the past 3 months (July-September) the average is 83.3 percent of pre-COVID-19.