Fiji lost $2 billion in 2020 as a result of COVID-19, says Attorney-General and Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
While delivering a report on the state of the economy and Government’s financial position for the first six months of the 2020-2021 financial year in Parliament yesterday, he said the pandemic also chalked up the largest-ever economic decline in Fijian history of 19 per cent.
He said Government debt was projected to increase to $8.3 billion or around 83 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of July this year.
“A full 14 percentage points of that increase alone is attributed to the decline in our GDP,” said Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.
“External debt is projected to increase to 26.1 per cent of GDP while domestic debt is projected at 57.3 per cent of GDP.
“Contingent liabilities stands at $1.45 billion, equivalent to around 14.7 per cent of GDP.
“This, of course, includes Government guaranteed debt of $832.9 million, followed by ADB and World Bank subscriptions $515.5 million and other implicit liabilities of $103 million.”
He said Government’s total revenue collection for the first six months stood at $964.8 million while total expenditures amounted to $1.5 billion.
“This resulted in a net deficit of $545.8 million or 5.5 per cent of GDP.”
The A-G said on the balance of payments front, foreign reserves remained “at a comfortable level of around $2.2 billion, sufficient to cover 6.7 months of retained imports”.
