TOTAL Government debt is projected to reach an all-time high of $11.7 billion at the end of July this year, an equivalent of 84 per cent of GDP. This was revealed by Minister for Finance Esrom Immanuel at last week’s signing of loan and grant agreements with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for two major projects – the Pacific Healthy Islands Transformation Project (PHIT) and the Enhancing Climate Resilience of Coastal Communities Project.
While giving assurances that Government borrowings related to the two projects are “within our fiscal targets and investment focus area”, Mr Immanuel said total Government debt stood at around $10.8 billion at the end of July last year, an equivalent of 78.9 per cent of GDP.
“Debt is projected at $11.7 billion or around 84 percent of GDP by the end of July 2026,” he added.
Government’s debt portfolio has maintained consistency with its 2024-2026 Medium Term Debt Strategy (see Table 1), which mainly aims to minimise the long-term cost of debt within a prudent level of risk.
In the latest Debt Report (Quarter 1, 2025-2026) prepared by the Ministry of Finance, total Government debt remained at $10.82 billion at the end of October 2025, with most of that borrowed in the domestic market and the international portion mainly denominated in US dollars.
The ADB had approved a $US50 million (approx. $F112m) soft loan to Fiji for the PHIT project, which it is co-financing with the World Bank, the OPEC Fund and the World Health Orgnisation’s Pandemic Fund.
