Bula vinaka shoppers, A recent academic feature has reignited an important national conversation: Fiji is not just dealing with high prices — it is facing a full-scale cost-of-living crisis.
According to a Dialogue Fiji survey, of 1,266 people in March–April 2026 nearly half of respondents see cost of living as the biggest issue, more than half are feeling pressure from rising food prices, and almost 70 per cent describe household financial stress as severe or very severe.
Engineer and reform strategist Sunil Chand argues this is not temporary inflation, as it reflects a deeper structural problem in how Fiji’s economy is built. Many households are no longer cutting luxuries; they are cutting essentials.
With 50–70 per cent of disposable income going toward food, fuel, transport, electricity, and housing, most of which are tied to imports, Fiji is effectively importing inflation directly into our family budgets.
At the same time, government revenue is heavily dependent on VAT, fuel duties, and import-linked consumption taxes. This creates a contradiction: when prices rise, households suffer, but state revenue also increases. In other words, parts of the fiscal system benefit from the very inflation squeezing families.
This is why tax adjustments alone, such as VAT changes in recent years (from 9 to 15 per cent then 12.5 percent), have not eased pressure in any lasting way. Fuel sits at the centre of this system.
Fiji imports about 1.6–1.7 billion dollars in fuel annually, and because fuel is embedded in transport, shipping, electricity generation, food distribution, tourism, construction, and manufacturing, it becomes the first engine of inflation.
Any global oil shock quickly translates into domestic price increases. Because fuel is priced in US dollars, any weakening of the Fiji dollar amplifies the impact immediately.
This fuel dependency feeds directly into electricity costs, since around 37–50 per cent of Fiji’s power generation still relies on diesel.
When fuel prices rise, electricity tariffs, surcharges, and business operating costs all rise with it, feeding back into higher household expenses and overall cost of living pressures.
Food imports add another layer of vulnerability as Fiji imports more than $1.1 billion in food annually. While imports can be cheaper under stable global conditions, this “cheapness” hides risk.
When global supply chains are disrupted — as seen during COVID-19 and recent fuel shocks — shipping costs surge, currencies weaken, and prices become volatile. Imported food that was once affordable can quickly become expensive.
Chand also highlights how these structural issues extend into housing and urban pressure. As rural production weakened over time, people migrated to urban centres for jobs and services.
This increased demand for housing, raised rents, stretched infrastructure, and added commuting costs — all of which feed back into the cost-of-living crisis. Fuel dependency, food imports, and weak rural economies are therefore directly linked to housing stress.
Tourism, a key pillar of Fiji’s economy, is also caught in this cycle as rising fuel, food, and electricity costs increase operating expenses while making Fiji a more expensive destination. This can reduce visitor demand, weaken foreign exchange inflows, and place pressure on employment.
Looking ahead, there is concern that Fiji may begin feeling the delayed impact of global fuel price increases soon.
A 20–25 per cent rise in fuel can cascade through transport, electricity, food prices, and household budgets, increasing the overall cost of living by an estimated 5–12 per cent.
The deeper issue, however, is historical. Since economic liberalisation following the 1987 period, Fiji has shifted from a production-based economy to one driven by tourism, remittances, and imports.
Local production weakened, rural economies hollowed out, and dependence on external goods increased.
The long-term solution, according to this analysis, is not short-term subsidies or repeated tax changes.
It is producing more food locally, generating more energy domestically, rebuilding rural economies, and reducing reliance on imported essentials.
In short, Fiji’s cost-of-living crisis is not just about prices — it is about dependency, and how the economy is structured beneath them.
Let’s change that by planting our own rations wherever we can to reduce our household budgets on food.
