Fiji is expected to fully return to pre-COVID level gross domestic product (GDP) by 2024, says Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
While announcing the 2022-2023 National Budget in Parliament last night, he said that was anticipated, given the expected rate of growth following the resumption of tourism in December last year.
“Without the government stimulus package, the closure of our borders and the introduction of necessary health restrictions would have created a socio-economic crisis and inflicted decades long of economic devastation,” he said.
“Right now, the only blooming business would be debt collectors and the best jobs available would be for people who boarded up shop windows.
“We would see riots in the streets and that anger would be justified because people would have had no food to eat.”
He said the Government borrowed prudently to prevent the challenges being pushed onto the people.
“Every government on Earth that could borrow did so for the same reason.
“We didn’t just starve off the disaster, we prepared actually for the future.”
