Fiji’s trade remains undisrupted during this pandemic

Trade between Fiji and its partners has not faced much disruption during this pandemic.

This is particularly for trade between Australia and New Zealand.

This comes as freight flights between Fiji and its major trading partners have been maintained in the last two years despite limited travel globally at some point.

The Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, John Feakes, says Kava is becoming a growing commodity in many countries, with a pilot program recently launched looking to increase its sale and distribution in Australia.

“And we are hoping that once that pilot is finished, we will see kava exports in commercial quantities pick up in Australia. At the moment, you can take in 4 kilos for personal use. But we know that Fiji Kava is the best in the world and we are keen to see it enter the market in commercial quantities.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand High Commissioner to Fiji, Charlotte Darlow, reiterates that trade is an integral part of bilateral relations and continues to work with the government to ensure it remains as undisrupted as possible.

“As governments, we’ve tried to step through how to address some of those challenges in a time of COVID and you will see us may be looking at maybe using airlines a little bit differently and maybe supporting shipping routes differently, but I am hoping that we have help to manage some of those disruptions as much as we possibly can.”

Commissioner Darlow and Feakes have also shared similar sentiments that the Fijian Drua opens up discussions to explore new trade opportunities with Fiji in other sectors.

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Tourism confidence level remains high

There is still a lot of interest and confidence from travelers wanting to visit Fiji.

This is despite events of recent flooding as well as the third wave of the pandemic and impacts of the volcanic eruptions in Tonga.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says despite this lull period in the tourism calendar whereby tourists are reluctant to travel, there are still those who have made forward bookings for later in the year.

“A lot of people are booking into May, June, and July. I’ve also seen some of the bookings way down to October and November of this year.”

The Minister for Economy says occupancy may have dropped in some hotels. However, this does not apply to all.

He says some travelers have changed their schedules due to rising Omicron cases in their country.

Sayed-Khaiyum says what is more important is for operators to maintain a safe environment for visitors, as this will attract tourists.

“We need to continue to ensure that the COVID safe measures and protocols we put in place are well adhered to because that is what leads to confidence

He says tourists are already aware of Fiji’s high vaccination rate, urging Fijians to maintain adherence to COVID-safety measures so that the industry attracts more visitors.

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Abundant liquidity helped keep borrowing rates low

The Reserve Bank in its latest economic reviews has stated that abundant liquidity in the banking system and quantitative easing measures by them have helped keep borrowing rates low.

Accordingly, commercial banks’ lending and deposit rates declined over the year and over the month in November 2021, except for the new time deposit rate which increased over the month.

The RBF states the weighted average outstanding lending rate of banks was 5.79 percent in November compared to 6.15 percent a year ago.

It also states in its economic review that inward personal remittances grew by 16.2 percent in the 11 months of 2021 to total $752.7 million.

Of the total cash transfers received, $445.2 million were remitted via money transfer operators, $161.9 million through mobile money platforms, and $145.6 million through commercial banks.

The RBF says high global energy and food prices coupled with continued supply chain bottlenecks and labour shortages continue to affect domestic prices.

Inflation has been on a rising trajectory in the second half of 2021 and is expected to maintain the momentum in the first quarter of this year.

The annual inflation rate is estimated to have been around two percent at the end of 2021 and is projected to rise to 2.5 percent by the end of this year.

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Economic activity picks-up

Economic activity started to pick up from the last quarter of 2021 as mobility restrictions were eased and international borders re-opened from December 1^st says the Reserve Bank of Fiji.

The RBF in its latest economic review states that major sectoral production continued to show improved results although still below the pre-pandemic level.

Output in the timber industry remained firm in the year to November 2021.

Governor, Ariff Ali says aggregate demand also started to pick up as reflected by improvements in consumption and investment spending.

Ali says monthly growth in Net Value Added Tax collections moved into negative territory in November, after recording gains for two straight months owing to higher VAT refunds.

He adds investment spending is also rising, although at a slower pace.

New loans for investment activity increased by 3.1 percent in the year to November, driven by higher lending to the real estate category.As per the RBF Job Advertisement Survey in the
year to November 2021, the number of jobs advertised declined by 37.9 percent compared to a higher contraction of 65.7 percent noted in the corresponding period in 2020.

Ali says demand for labour is expected to pick up gradually after mobility restrictions were eased and international borders were re-opened last quarter.

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Tourism Fiji welcomes revised measures

Tourism Fiji Chief Executive, Brent Hill says they are very working closely with the Ministry of Health on the measures designed to keep everyone safe.

This as the Ministry of Health has made changes to the pre-departure testing for incoming travelers to mitigate any possible transmission of the virus in the communities.

All travelers will now have to produce a negative PCR test taken no more than two calendar days prior to their scheduled departure from January 1st.

Hill has described these changes as risk reduction measures.

He adds the new Omicron variant is highly transmissible and will work in favor of everyone if the amount of cases coming in the country is reduced.

“The measures they are putting are designed to keep everybody safe as possible and to reduce that period of exposure and this is risk reduction measures the Ministry is putting in place.”

The changes apply to all travelers disembarking or transiting through Fiji from January 1st.

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More than $100m to be injected through visitor arrivals

Tourism Fiji is optimistic that the economy will rake in over one hundred million dollars through visitor arrivals by the end of next month.

Chief Executive, Brent Hill says this is based on previously available data for tourist spending and visitor arrivals.

Hill adds the last few weeks of this month and January are the busiest.

“It’s been really encouraging. We are still on track to see a sort of 30,000 mark in December of tourists coming to Fiji which is fantastic. Lots of people are coming here relaxing, enjoying an amazing Fijian Holiday, and importantly getting home safely”.

Hill is cautiously optimistic that the tourism sector will do well going into the New Year.

“The early signs are actually really encouraging in terms of our tourism spend. One of the hotels I spoke to, said that the numbers of things like food and beverage are up a little higher. We see really good numbers in tourism experiences, I think the operators operating South Sea Cruises, Cloud 9, and Captain Cook, all these amazing operators particularly here in the West are doing well and are seeing tourists booked out”.

He adds that while they have had a very low percentage of tourists testing positive for COVID-19, they are trying all they can to keep everyone safe.

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