Overview: Fiji's economy is primarily agricultural, with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports and tourism are the major sources of foreign exchange. Industry contributes 13% to GDP, with sugar processing accounting for one-third of industrial activity. Roughly 250,000 tourists visit each year. Political uncertainty and drought, however, contribute to substantial fluctuations in earnings from tourism and sugar. In 1992, growth was approximately 3%, based on growth in tourism and a lessening of labor-management disputes in the sugar and gold-mining sectors. In 1993, the government's budgeted growth rate of 3% was not achieved because of a decline in non-sugar agricultural output and damage from Cyclone Kina.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $3 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 1% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $4,000 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.6% (1993 est.)

Unemployment rate: 5.9% (1991 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $455 million
expenditures: $546 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1993 est.)

Exports: $417 million (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities: sugar 40%, clothing, processed fish, gold, lumber
partners: EC 26%, Australia 15%, Pacific Islands 11%, Japan 6%

Imports: $517 million (c.i.f., 1992 est)
commodities: machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products, food, consumer goods, chemicals
partners: Australia 30%, NZ 17%, Japan 13%, EC 6%, US 6%

External debt: $670 million (1994 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 7.5% (1992 est.); accounts for 13% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 215,000 kW
production: 420 million kWh
consumption per capita: 560 kWh (1992)

Industries: sugar, tourism, copra, gold, silver, clothing, lumber, small cottage industries

Agriculture: accounts for 23% of GDP; principal cash crop is sugarcane; coconuts, cassava, rice, sweet potatoes, bananas; small livestock sector includes cattle, pigs, horses, and goats; fish catch nearly 33,000 tons (1989)

Economic aid:
recipient: Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1980-89), $815 million

Currency: 1 Fijian dollar (F$) = 100 cents
Exchange rates: Fijian dollars (F$) per US$1 - 1.5239 (January 1994), 1.5418 (1993), 1.5030 (1992), 1.4756 (1991), 1.4809 (1990), 1.4833 (1989)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Fiji on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Fiji Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Fiji Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.