The Fiji Government achieved a fiscal surplus in the first quarter of financial year 2024-25, marking the first surplus since late 2019.
This is stated by Westpac in its latest quarterly update on Fijian economy published yesterday.
“This (surplus) positive outcome was driven by higher tax collections and effective compliance measures, resulting in government revenue exceeding forecasts while expenditures lagged behind,” said Westpac.
“Although there was an increase in expenditures compared to the previous year, primarily due to a rise in the operating civil service wage bill, capital and infrastructure spending remained below the budgeted allocations.”
Westpac added the tourism arrival numbers are down compared to where they would normally be.
“We are particularly concerned about the five-month continuous decline in New Zealand arrivals.”
“While we can point to the recession in New Zealand, visitors from Australia also slipped in February and March.”
“With the Australian election looming in May, this adds further uncertainty to the outlook for Fiji’s near-term arrival numbers.”
Westpac states the downturn in visitor arrivals during the first quarter of 2025 raises concerns about the domestic economic outlook, compounded by global uncertainty and its potential impact on trade and inflation.
“Our economic outlook for 2025 has shifted to the downside.”
“We now expect Fiji’s economy to grow by 2.7% in 2025 vs our earlier projection of 3.4%.”
“Global growth in unison is expected to be lower as prospects from earlier growth in the US now seems less likely. For Fiji, it is a waiting game now.”
