DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Professor Biman Prasad has clarified that Fiji’s poverty rate stands at 24.1 per cent, not 29.9 per cent as claimed by Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation CEO Edward Bernard.
Prof Prasad said the Government’s estimates were based on the 2019–2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, which was later revised with the Fiji Bureau of Statistics and the World Bank.
“This revision resulted in a significant adjustment to both the national poverty rate and its distribution across urban and rural areas,” he said.
“Specifically, the rural poverty rate stands at 36.5 per cent, not 41 per cent, as mentioned in the article. However, even if one takes the original rate of 29.9 per cent based on the 2019/2020 HIES, it does not reflect what might have happened since the COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, it has been taken as the current rate by the CEO and the media, which is not correct.”
He said the Government had rolled out targeted measures to address poverty through social protection, education, health, employment, and essential services.
“These initiatives include increases in welfare schemes, pensions for the elderly, subsidies on water, electricity, and medicine, as well as free education and writing off of TELS debt, bus fare assistance, and back-to-school grants, and raising of the minimum wages, etcetera.
“The Government also supports livelihoods through job training, small business grants, and agricultural assistance, while improving access to infrastructure such as roads, electricity, and clean water.”
To ease living costs, Prof Prasad said VAT on essential items was zero-rated, while the VAT rate was reduced from 15 per cent to 12.5 per cent in the 2025–2026 Budget. Duties on many goods were also reduced.
“Government has also allocated $4.1 million in the 2025-2026 Budget for the Fiji Bureau of Statistics to undertake a new Household and Income Expenditure Survey, which will determine the new poverty rates and it will reflect what the current situation is.”