The Asia-Pacific Regulatory Centre (APRC) has expressed concern on the timing of the fuel price decision by the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC), saying it had not only come earlier than it should, but also deprived the country a one-month window of preparation and a communicated unified national response.
APRC executive director Joel Abraham said Fiji’s existing fuel pricing framework had historically incorporated a lag of typically around two months between movements in international benchmark prices and domestic price adjustments.
He said that served a critical function in creating a buffer against immediate volatility, providing space for businesses and households to adjust, and also gave Government time to respond deliberately.
“Under normal circumstances, the current global price escalation would have been expected to meaningfully reflect in domestic prices closer to May. That one-month window between emerging global signals and full domestic impact was not merely a technical delay. It was a policy space,” Mr Abraham said.
“What appears to have occurred in the most recent price determination is a compression of that space.”
The former FCCC chief executive said the inclusion of more recent international price data, particularly from late March had effectively brought forward the domestic impact of global price increases.
“This is not a trivial adjustment. It is a shift that carries real consequences – households experience cost of living pressures earlier, businesses face immediate cost escalation, inflationary pressures are accelerated, and critically, Government loses valuable time to calibrate its responses.
“The issue is not whether prices should increase, they must, given global conditions.
“The issue is that the timing of this increase has removed a critical window that Government had to respond in a coordinated and measured way,” Mr Abraham said.
He said in one month, the Government could have finalised a structured fuel price smoothing which it had already started; engaged industry stakeholders more comprehensively; aligned fiscal, regulatory and social protection responses; and communicated a unified national strategy.
He said instead, the shock arrived earlier than anticipated.
“That window was not idle time, it was an opportunity for alignment, consultation, and preparation. Its removal constrains policy at precisely the moment it is most needed.”
Mr Abraham said an overly immediate pass-through of global price movements, especially during a sharp escalation, could have unintended consequences like amplified short-term economic stress, reducing the effectiveness of coordinated government response, and risked shifting the system from managed adjustment to reactive shock.
“Speed is not always prudence. In moments like this, discipline in timing is as important as accuracy in pricing.”
Mr Abaraham said the APRC was assisting the Government in establishing a Fuel Shock Response Framework (FSRF) – a structured system that would define trigger points based on global price movements, establish pre-agreed policy responses, and embed a price smoothing mechanism to manage volatility over time.
