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While Fiji’s September 2024 quarter building approvals data indicated the current price nominal value of building approvals fell 5.8 percent quarter-on-quarter to $133million, approvals were up 68.6 percent year-on-year to $381m for the 12 months to September.
ANZ senior international economists Kishti Sen and Tom Kenny said in their latest report that the shopping mall and warehouse segments were the main drivers.
The economists said Fiji was building a solid investment pipeline for non-dwelling buildings, having already broken the previous landmark of $350m – on an annual basis – reached in 2018.
They said several projects including offices, shops, warehouses, hospitals, factories, hotels and resorts were slated to commence over the next two to three years.
“With ongoing policy and legislative certainty, more of these projects are entering the permitting stage,” Mr Sen and Mr Kenny said in the Pacific Economic Outlook released last week.
“We expect building approvals to remain strong, in both value and volume, that is inflation adjusted, for the rest of this year and heading into 2026.”
“As approved projects go to commencement, we expect construction activity to pick up and take a greater role in driving economic growth from the second half of this year and in 2026.”
The economists said new investment would generate jobs, support household income and private demand.
Mr Sen and Mr Kenny said private sector investment was emerging.
In a media interview last year, Mr Sen said Fiji’s economy was looking at an additional new spend of $600million through private investment that would become a key influence of local economic growth this year and into 2026.
He had said that private investment would largely be into residential and non-dwelling buildings that had been bumping around the bottom of the business cycle but was now emerging.
He had added that private investment would come through in 2025 and it would create jobs and give households more spending power.
Mr Sen had said that together with publicly funded infrastructure projects like roads, ports and jetties, Fiji would be looking at a very good year for the construction sector this year, and most of it would be private investment.
