Overview: Fiji is primarily agricultural, with a large subsistence sector. Sugar is a major source of foreign exchange earnings and its processing accounts for a third of industrial output. Industry, including sugar milling, contributes 10% to GDP. In the past Fiji has earned considerable sums of hard currency from the 250,000 tourists who visited each year. In 1987, however, after two military coups, the economy went into decline. GDP decreased by more than 10% as tourism dropped by about 25% and the average length of stay and expenditure of each tourist fell.

GDP: $1.12 billion, per capita $1,680; real growth rate - 11.2% (1987)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.7% (1987)

Unemployment rate: 15-20% (1988 est.)

Budget: revenues $274 million; expenditures $340 million, including capital expenditures of $55 million (1987 est.)

Exports: $328 million (f.o.b., 1987); @m5commodities--sugar 49%, copra, processed fish, lumber; @m5partners--UK 45%, Australia 21%, US 4.7%

Imports: $385 million (c.i.f., 1987); @m5commodities--food 15%, petroleum products, machinery, consumer goods; @m5partners--US 4.8%, NZ, Australia, Japan

External debt: $430 million (December 1988)

Industrial production: growth rate - 10.7% (1987)

Electricity: 215,000 kW capacity; 325 million kWh produced, 440 kWh per capita (1988)

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

Agriculture: principal cash crop is sugarcane; coconuts, cassava, rice, sweet potatoes, and bananas; small livestock sector includes cattle, pigs, horses, and goats

Aid: Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1980-86), $638 million

Currency: Fijian dollar (plural--dollars); 1 Fijian dollar (F$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Fijian dollars (F$) per US$1--1.4025 (January 1989), 1.4298 (1988), 1.2235 (1987), 1.1320 (1986), 1.1526 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Fiji on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Fiji Economy 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Fiji Economy 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.