Fiji’s public debt reached $11.6 billion as of September 30 this year and is projected to hit $12.6bn (84.8 per cent of GDP) by July 2027, Minister for Finance Esrom Immanuel disclosed in Parliament.
While responding to a question by Opposition member Premila Kumar on Fiji’s actual public debt, the Minister provided a statistical breakdown of the country’s current fiscal obligations.
As of July 31, 2026, actual debt stood at $11.4bn (81.0 per cent of GDP), comprising $7.5bn in domestic borrowings and $3.8bn in external debt.
“As at 30th September, 2026, total Government debt has increased to approximately $11.6bn, 200 more from the July figure, comprising $7.6bn in domestic debt and $4bn in external debt,” Mr Immanuel said.
“Based on the estimated nominal GDP of $14.8bn, the debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 78.4 per cent.
“While the debt stock increased between July and September, the debt-to-GDP ratio declined largely due to the increase in nominal GDP.”
By July 2027 when the current financial year ends, Mr Immanuel said domestic debt was projected to reach $8.2bn, and external debt to hit $4.4bn. He said domestic debt accounted for 65 per cent of the portfolio, while external debt stood at 35 per cent, with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank cited as the primary external creditors.
Meanwhile, total debt servicing for the 2026–2027 financial year is budgeted at $1.03bn, consisting of $572m in interest and $436.3m in principal repayments.
By late September, the Government had spent $195.4mn on servicing against $818.8m in collected revenue.
“As at the end of September, the Government had already serviced approximately $195.4m in debt obligations, which comprises $113.0m in interest payments, $81.1m in principal repayments, and $1.3m in miscellaneous charges.”
Addressing concerns regarding limited fiscal space as highlighted in the World Bank’s inaugural Fiji Economic Update report, Mr Immanuel said: “For this financial year, I do not think we can do much, and the World Bank and ADB are aware of those.”
“We have a capital expenditure program that we need to undertake, which started from September and onwards. Hopefully this crisis will go away.
“We cannot do much with the current crisis that is facing the whole world. For Fiji, we have already taken the issues into account, and part of that started this year, including cost-cutting measures, as well as rationalising our expenditure.”
