Praneeta Prakash 
The Fiji Bureau of Statistics is gearing to conduct a significant 2025/2026 Household Income and Expenditure Survey aimed at assessing current poverty levels and economic resilience across the country.
Chief Executive, Kemueli Naiqama says the survey is crucial for recalibrating the Consumer Price Index basket, updating poverty rates, and contributing to the country’s national accounts.
Naiqama adds that the survey is critical, given the significant economic disruptions caused by COVID-19.
“The last report happened to be 29.9% of the population in poverty and we do not know now. The earlier one was undertaken before COVID, now we’re going to do it after COVID. Some of the businesses are still closed, some have been unemployed due to COVID, and so it would be a good way of measuring poverty again for the country.”
Naiqama says the survey which will begin in March next year and conclude in February 2026, will engage around 100 trained enumerators.
“We have identified 6,300 households to collect the statistics, which is a good representative across the nation. And they will be trained around three to four weeks of training to go through the questionnaire, go through why we are asking such questions, the importance of such questions.”
The Fiji Bureau of Statistics today organized a user consultation workshop to engage with key stakeholders and gather feedback on the survey questionnaire.
