The rebound in tourism is supporting the current domestic economic recovery – RBF

The Reserve Bank of Fiji says in contrast to the global economy, the rebound in tourism is supporting the current domestic economic recovery.

It says cumulative to June, tourist arrivals totalled 205,529; representing around 50 percent of visitor arrivals in the same period in 2019.

Majority of the tourists were from Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The RBF says other sectoral outputs have noted mixed movements and in the first half of the year, sugar, electricity, cement, mahogany, and sawn timber production recorded annual growth while gold and woodchip production fell.

In the year to June, collections grew for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) at 12.3 percent and Net Value Added Tax at 61 percent along with total vehicle registrations at 44 percent. This corroborated with the annual growth in commercial banks’ new lending for consumption purposes at 58.4 percent over the same period.

There is also good news as cumulative to May, inward remittances rose by 16.7 percent to $387.6 million, supported mainly by higher inflows via money transfer operators and mobile network operators. This is the money sent to people in Fiji by those living abroad.