What is GDP? Picture a Fijian village: families fish, farm dalo, build homes, teach children, and care for elders, often without cash. There are 1193 such villages in Fiji. These villages thrive, meeting needs like food, health, and security in balance through hybrid economies blending subsistence and some cash trade. Yet, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — the world’s economic yardstick — says they contribute zero.
GDP only counts monetary transactions: consumption, investment, government spending, exports. A society drowning in debt, disease, and overwork, spending big on hospitals or imported goods, gets hailed for “growth.” We’re mistaking economic noise for health, and Fiji’s paying the price. Our National Development Plan (NDP) aspires to make Fiji a high-income country by around 2050, but chasing GDP is a scam that labels our rich villages “poor” and threatens their quiet prosperity.
How did GDP start and gain popularity?
GDP started in the 1930s when Simon Kuznets tracked US activity during the Great Depression. It surged during World War II to measure war production. By 1944, the US dollar, holding ~59 per cent of global foreign exchange reserves, became the world’s reserve currency at Bretton Woods. US-led institutions — IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) — made GDP the standard, tying dollar-denominated loans and aid to market reforms they claimed would fix poverty. UN agencies like UNDP embedded GDP in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Fiji was roped in by the 1960s, despite its villages thriving in hybrid economies. Dollar-based loans (eg, an estimated $767m from ADB since 1992, $70m in 2024) come with strings — IMF’s Article IV reports push GDP growth, while UN programs reinforce market metrics. Dollar volatility spikes debt costs (external debt was 26 per cent of GDP in 2019), yet nobody’s telling Fiji to rethink this yardstick, fuelling the scam driving our NDP.
Does GDP actually measure prosperity?
GDP measures transactions, not well-being. Fiji’s 1193 villages grow food, share resources, and live by vanua — connection to land and community — meeting core needs like food, shelter, health, education, and security, often without cash. Yet, monetary surveys, like the World Bank’s 24.1 per cent poverty rate in 2019, call them “poor.” Poor? Their resources often outshine urban earners, though urban areas have better formal healthcare and education access. Poverty means lacking food, water, healthcare, education, or security — villages largely have these, but GDP says they’re worthless.
Meanwhile, GDP cheers imports — $F816m for food, $F1.4B for energy in 2022. Global trade pushes farmers to export sugar while importing rice, draining reserves and exposing households to price shocks. GDP ignores health crises (30 per cent diabetes prevalence), brain drain (an estimated 5000+ youths in PALM/RSE schemes), and urban settlement growth, rewarding noise over core needs. The NDP’s high-income goal doubles down, chasing GDP while making rich villages poor.
Why was GDP used over other measures?
Why GDP? It’s simple, comparable, and fits the market-driven world bankers built. Post-Depression and WWII, it drove growth, aligning with Western priorities. The US dollar’s dominance ties Fiji to dollar-denominated loans, with IMF conditionality demanding GDP targets to manage debt-to-GDP ratios. UN agencies’ SDG funding reinforces this, ignoring non-monetary systems. Alternatives like Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP), which values ecosystems, or Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which measures deprivation, were sidelined because they don’t serve the bankers’ agenda. Nobody at the IMF, World Bank, ADB, or UNDP is pushing Fiji to use them, keeping us in the GDP scam that fuels our NDP.
Fiji’s high-income dream: Falling for the GDP scam?
Fiji’s NDP aspires to become a high-income country by around 2050, with a GNI per capita over $13,845 (from $5860 in 2022). Sounds inspiring, but it’s a trap. Chasing GDP plays into the scam, mislabelling our 1193 villages as poor and pushing them to monetise vanua through loans (eg, ADB’s $70m in 2024) for tourism or infrastructure. This boosts GDP but erodes autonomy, tying Fiji to USD debt that spikes with dollar volatility (26 per cent of GDP external in 2019). Export-led growth — sugar, tourism — deepens import reliance, leaving us vulnerable to global shocks.
Implications for core human needs
This GDP-centric approach undermines Fiji’s core human needs:
q Food Security: Reliance on food imports ($F816m in 2022) and underutilised farmland due to export focus exposes households to global price shocks, contradicting village self-sufficiency.
q Energy Independence: Dependence on fossil fuel imports ($F1.4billion in 2022) fuels inflation and depletes reserves, with little NDP focus on renewables suited to villages.
q Financial Sovereignty: USD-denominated debt increases vulnerability, diverting resources from local needs to loan repayments.
q Health and Wellbeing: Rising non-communicable diseases (eg, 30 per cent diabetes prevalence) strain systems, worsened by import-driven diets over local produce.
q Education and Knowledge: Brain drain, with an estimated 5000+ youths emigrating via PALM/RSE, weakens capacity, as NDP investments favour urban sectors over rural education.
q Security: Unemployment and growing urban settlements signal instability, as village economies are disrupted by marketisation.
The NDP’s GDP focus, pushed by IMF and ADB, risks degrading ecosystems — reefs, forests — that villages rely on, making rich villages poor while aligning with the WEF’s “you own nothing” vision.
The GDP scam: How rich villages are made poor
How the GDP scam turns Fiji’s rich villages poor in four steps:
1. Misclassify Villages as Poor: GDP and monetary surveys, like the World Bank’s, label our 1193 villages “poor” because they rely heavily on non-cash systems, ignoring their wealth in food (Dalo, fish), shelter (communal homes), and vanua-based community. A village in Vanua Levu, farming dalo and fishing daily, thrives without much income, yet is deemed “economically inactive,” justifying intervention.
2. Push Debt to “Fix” Poverty: Foreign banks — IMF, World Bank, ADB — offer dollar-based loans (eg, an estimated $767m from ADB since 1992) to “develop” villages. A farmer in Navua might lease vanua for a resort to join the cash economy, taking a loan to build infrastructure. This boosts GDP with transactions but ties families to USD debt, pricier when the dollar spikes (26 per cent of GDP external in 2019).
3. Force Marketisation: Global trade policies, backed by IMF and ADB, push villages to grow sugar or kava for export while importing rice ($F816m in 2022) and fuel ($F1.4b). A Viti Levu farmer switches from diverse crops to kava, idling fertile land for local food and relying on imports, enriching middlemen while losing self-sufficiency.
4. Tax the New Transactions: As villages enter the cash economy, every sale — dalo at the market, a tourist homestay — gets taxed. This funds USD debt repayments, burdening communities. A Taveuni family, once self-sufficient, now pays taxes on kava sales, draining wealth to service loans while ecosystems like reefs degrade from overexploitation.
The WEF’s “you own nothing and you will be happy” fits this scam, envisioning a market-driven world where villages lose vanua to banks and markets. UN agencies, tied to USD-based SDGs, reinforce it with market-focused programs. The NDP’s high-income goal fuels this, prioritising transactions over villages’ core needs — food, energy, financial sovereignty, health, knowledge, security.
Alternative measures of prosperity
We need a yardstick that sees Fiji’s true prosperity. Options include:
l Human Development Index (HDI): Tracks health, education, income but leans on GDP.
l Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI): Adjusts for inequality, environmental damage, village work.
l Gross National Happiness (GNH): Measures well-being, aligning with vanua.
l Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Targets deprivations in health, education, living standards.
l Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI): Values human, natural, physical capital.
l Social Progress Index (SPI): Covers social, environmental outcomes.
l Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP): Values clean water, fertile soil, biodiversity — key for Fiji’s core needs.
Is GEP appropriate for Fiji?
GEP is perfect for Fiji. Our villages rely on reefs for fish, forests for fuel, mangroves for marine life nursery — GEP values these, supporting food, health, and security. It aligns with vanua, countering the GDP scam by valuing non-market wealth. When coral bleaching or deforestation threatens livelihoods, GEP shows the loss, unlike GDP. It supports an NDP that prioritises local production (eg, dalo, ginger), imports essentials, and exports niche goods like kava.
Challenges? GEP needs ecological data, and Fiji might need UNEP or ADB help. It’s not standardised globally, sidelined in USD-dominated systems. But Fiji can pioneer it, redefining prosperity.
Best fit for Fiji: A MPI-GPI-GEP hybrid, centered on food, energy, finance, health, knowledge, security. MPI tackles deprivations, GPI captures village work and environmental costs, GEP values ecosystems. This measures true wealth—healthy ecosystems, resilient communities, secure livelihoods.
Is the focus on GDP a scam?
Yes, it’s a scam — a GDP growth racket designed by bankers, propped up by USD-centric institutions. GDP mislabels Fiji’s 1193 villages as poor, ignoring their wealth in core needs. Banks push dollar-denominated loans, monetising vanua. Trade policies force exports over local food and energy needs, draining reserves. Taxes burden communities, and dollar volatility spikes debt costs. UN agencies reinforce this with market-focused SDGs. The NDP’s high-income goal falls for this racket, undermining food security, energy independence, financial sovereignty, health, knowledge, and security, while risking ecosystem degradation.
Fiji deserves better. A people-centric, needs-based NDP using a MPI-GPI-GEP framework would value our villages’ quiet prosperity, protect ecosystems, and prioritise core human needs over global markets. We must diversify from USD dependency, reject the GDP scam, and demand advisors who champion localised metrics. Only then can Fiji secure sustainable prosperity and sovereignty, proving true wealth isn’t transactions — it’s how well our people and villages thrive.
