Economy
Economic overview:
Fiji, richly 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 tourism are the major sources of foreign exchange. Industry contributes 17% to GDP; sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial activity. Roughly 250,000 tourists visit each year. Political uncertainty and drought, however, contribute to substantial fluctuations in earnings from tourism and sugar and to the emigration of skilled workers. In 1992, growth was approximately 3%, based on growth in tourism and a lessening of labor-management disputes in the sugar and gold-mining sectors. In 1993, the government's budgeted growth rate of 3% was not achieved because of a decline in non-sugar agricultural output and damage from Cyclone Kina. Growth in 1994 of 5% was largely attributable to increased tourism and expansion in the manufacturing sector.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $4.7 billion (1995 est.)
GDP real growth rate:
2.2% (1995 est.)
GDP per capita:
$6,100 (1995 est.)
GDP composition by sector:
agriculture:
22%
industry:
17%
services:
61% (1994)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
2% (1995)
Labor force:
235,000
by occupation:
subsistence agriculture 67%, wage earners 18%, salary earners 15% (1987)
Unemployment rate:
5.4% (1992)
Budget:
revenues:
$495.6 million
expenditures:
$591.2 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1995 est.)
Industries:
sugar, tourism, copra, gold, silver, clothing, lumber, small cottage industries
Industrial production growth rate:
0% (1993 est.)
Electricity:
capacity:
200,000 kW
production:
480 million kWh
consumption per capita:
581 kWh (1993)
Agriculture:
sugarcane, coconuts, cassava (tapioca), rice, sweet potatoes, bananas; cattle, pigs, horses, goats; fish catch nearly 33,000 tons (1989)
Exports:
$571.8 million (f.o.b., 1995)
commodities:
sugar 40%, clothing, gold, processed fish, lumber
partners:
EC 26%, Australia 15%, Pacific Islands 11%, Japan 6%
Imports:
$864.3 million (c.i.f., 1995)
commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products, food, consumer goods, chemicals
partners:
Australia 30%, NZ 17%, Japan 13%, EC 6%, US 6%
External debt:
$670 million (1994 est.)
Economic aid:
recipient:
ODA, $NA
Currency:
1 Fijian dollar (F$) = 100 cents
Exchange rates:
Fijian dollars (F$) per US$1 - 1.4347 (January 1996), 1.4063 (1995), 1.4641 (1994), 1.5418 (1993), 1.5030 (1992), 1.4756 (1991)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
