Fiji Economy - 2005

Economy - overview:
Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports and a growing tourist industry - with 300,000 to 400,000 tourists annually - are the major sources of foreign exchange. Sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial activity, but is inefficient. Long-term problems include low investment, uncertain land ownership rights, and the government's ability to manage its budget. Yet short-run economic prospects are good, provided tensions do not again erupt between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Overseas remittances from Fijians working in Kuwait and Iraq have increased significantly.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $5.173 billion (2004 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
3.6% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $5,900 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 16.6%
industry: 22.4%
services: 61% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
137,000 (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture, including subsistence agriculture 70% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
7.6% (1999)

Population below poverty line:
25.5% (1990-91)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA
highest 10%: NA

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.6% (2002 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $427.9 million
expenditures: $531.4 million, including capital expenditures of NA (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
sugarcane, coconuts, cassava (tapioca), rice, sweet potatoes, bananas; cattle, pigs, horses, goats; fish

Industries:
tourism, sugar, clothing, copra, gold, silver, lumber, small cottage industries

Industrial production growth rate:
NA

Electricity - production:
750 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - consumption:
697.5 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
5,700 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA

Oil - imports:
NA

Exports:
$609 million f.o.b. (2002)

Exports - commodities:
sugar, garments, gold, timber, fish, molasses, coconut oil

Exports - partners:
US 23.6%, Australia 19.2%, UK 12.8%, Samoa 6.2%, Japan 4.1% (2004)

Imports:
$835 million c.i.f. (2002)

Imports - commodities:
manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products, food, chemicals

Imports - partners:
Australia 27.7%, Singapore 24.8%, New Zealand 17.8%, Japan 4.2% (2004)

Debt - external:
$188.1 million (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$40.3 million (1995)

Currency (code):
Fijian dollar (FJD)

Exchange rates:
Fijian dollars per US dollar - 1.7331 (2004), 1.8958 (2003), 2.1869 (2002), 2.2766 (2001), 2.1286 (2000)