[Source: Tourism Fiji/ Facebook]

Fiji’s economic activity last year was largely attributed to the remarkable performance of the tourism industry and its rippling positive effects on other related sectors.

Visitor arrivals rose by 5.7 percent in 2024, setting a new record high of 982,938 visitors, with Australian tourists dominating the outcome followed by arrivals from the United States and New Zealand.

Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali says the performance of the re-source-based sectors was generally positive despite industry-specific challenges with gold, sawn timber, and woodchips output noting gains in 2024.

Consumption activity remained resilient, supported by tourist demand, higher household incomes, and inward remittances.

Ali says partial indicators suggest some improvement in investment activity backed by an increase in imported labour supply and a deceleration in building material prices noted towards the latter part of last year.

Ali says the financial sector remained supportive of domestic growth.

He says private sector credit which rose by 11.4 percent was aided by the ample banking system liquidity of around $2.2 billion (as of January 29) and the historical-low lending rates.

Fiji’s annual headline inflation rate was 1.3 percent last December down from the 5.1 percent recorded in December 2023.

Ali says the impact of the 2023 VAT rate hike fell off calculations in the second half of 2024.

He says this partly resulted in a decline in prices in the transport, housing & utilities and restaurants & hotels categories with some price moderation noted in food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Additionally the RBF says as at yesterday foreign reserves stood at around $3.7 billion, adequate to cover 5.9 months of retained imports of goods and services and are projected to remain sufficient over the medium term.