Praneeta Prakash 
Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad has stressed the importance of adopting a three-way approach to address Fiji’s staggering debt gap.
Currently, Fiji’s debt stands at an alarming $9.1 billion.
He made the comments during a budget consultation on 2023/2024 national budget in Nadi.
“We are telling the World Bank, the IMF and ADB that we must have a fiscal strategy so that over a longer period of time in the future we are able to consistently reduce that ratio of debt to GDP.”
Professor Prasad adds that reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio to a more sustainable level of 50 percent would not be easy.
“There are three things that we have to do. We have to make sure that the economy keeps on growing but this is not the only solution because of the economy grows at an average of five percent and if we continue to spend the same amount of money and we don’t collect the revenue that we will not be able to reduce the debt .”
Prasad stresses that the government aims to address the implications of the debt burden while safeguarding the nation’s economic stability.
