Finance Minister Esrom Immanuel has warned that Fiji’s rising debt burden is consuming hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments each year, leaving less funding available for critical infrastructure and essential public services.
Continuing his 2026-2027 Budget address in Parliament, Mr Immanuel said annual interest payments on government debt had doubled to almost $600 million, while a further $400 million to $600 million was needed each year to refinance maturing debt.
“All these factors have contributed to the significant increase in overall public expenditure,” he said.
Although government revenue had increased from $2.8 billion to almost $4 billion over the past decade, Mr Immanuel said expenditure had grown at a much faster pace.
“What this meant was that Government had to continuously rely on increased borrowings to meet the growing expenditure commitments.”
He said Fiji was now facing a widening gap between government spending and state revenue, with the average fiscal deficit increasing from around 2 per cent in the previous decade to approximately 6 per cent over the past 10 years.
Mr Immanuel said the dominance of operating expenditure, now approaching $4 billion or more than 80 per cent of total government spending, had come at the expense of long-term capital investment.
He said this had limited the Government’s ability to build and maintain roads, replace bridges, upgrade hospitals and medical facilities, expand water and wastewater infrastructure, improve drainage systems and create an environment that would support private sector-led economic growth.
The Finance Minister said Fiji’s fiscal challenges had been compounded by the recent global fuel crisis and continued international economic uncertainty, which had further weakened government revenues.
Describing the current trend as unsustainable, Mr Immanuel called for a united national response rather than political point-scoring.
“This chronic challenge of debt-fueled expenditure growth at the current rate cannot be sustained. As a nation we must come together to resolve this.”
“We cannot play the blame game or rant about why we are in this situation. We have to be responsible and solution oriented.”
Mr Immanuel appealed to all Fijians not to politicise the country’s fiscal challenges, saying long-term solutions required collective support.
“I plead that we don’t politicise this issue and call upon everyone to be part of the solution. We need the support and understanding of each and every Fijian.”
“We cannot fall for short-term political gain and populist policies. We need to learn to live within our means. We need to learn to do more with less. And we need to ensure that we deliver the best long-term outcomes for our people,” he said.
