POVERTY in the Pacific Islands will increase in the future as prices of basic food items continue remain high, the United Nations Development Program poverty reduction officer, David Abbott said.
He made the comments during a Fiji Economics Association seminar presentation by the Asia Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund.
Mr Abott disputed the figures presented by the IMF saying the growth rates in the Pacific in some cases were actually much lower.
According to Jonathan Dunn of the IMF, Fiji's growth as a percentage of the real Gross Domestic Product would be less than negative two per cent this year and around 1.5 per cent in 2010.
For Tonga the growths this year and next year would be less that one per cent, it would be less than two per cent in Kiribati, over 3.5 per cent in Vanuatu, about four per cent in Papua New guinea.
Samoa will have a negative growth of about 5.8 per cent and negative one per cent next year due to the tsunami.
Mr Abbott explained that the growth in the Pacific was largely due to PNG's growth but if we looked at the per capita of the GDP, there was no growth and there were actually decreases.
There were also questions on where growth would come from in the region. The IMF said uncertainity was high for growth prospects in the region. Mr Dunn said tourism which was a key earner for the region showed signs of increase.
