Economy - overview Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports and a growing tourist industry are the major sources of foreign exchange. Sugar processing makes up 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 and to the emigration of skilled workers. Fiji's growth slowed in 1997 because the sugar industry suffered from low world prices and rent disputes between farmers and landowners.

GDP purchasing power parity - $5.1 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 3% (1996)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $6,500 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 21%
industry: 18%
services: 61% (1995 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 3% (1997 est.)

Labor force
total: 235,000
by occupation: subsistence agriculture 67%, wage earners 18%, salary earners 15% (1987)

Unemployment rate 6% (1997 est.)

Budget
revenues: $540.65 million
expenditures: $742.65 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1997 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate 2.9% (1995)

Electricity - capacity 200,000 kW (1995)

Electricity - production 545 million kWh (1995)

Electricity - consumption per capita 705 kWh (1995)

Agriculture - products sugarcane, coconuts, cassava (tapioca), rice, sweet potatoes, bananas; cattle, pigs, horses, goats; fish catch 13,796 tons (1991)

Exports
total value: $639 million (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: sugar 32%, clothing, gold, processed fish, lumber
partners: EU 26%, Australia 15%, other Pacific island countries 11%, Japan 6%

Imports
total value: $947 million (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products, food, consumer goods, chemicals
partners: Australia 30%, NZ 17%, Japan 13%, EU 6%, US 6%

Debt - external $333.8 million (1996 est.)

Economic aid
recipient: ODA, $14.35 million from Australia (FY96/97 est.); $3.5 million from New Zealand (FY95/96)

Currency 1 Fijian dollar (F$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates Fijian dollars (F$) per US$1 - 1.9064 (January 1998), 1.4437 (1997), 1.4033 (1996), 1.4063 (1995), 1.4641 (1994), 1.5418 (1993)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Fiji on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Fiji Economy 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Fiji Economy 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.