Fiji’s foreign exchange data released yesterday (April 6, 2021) by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics (FBoS) revealed improvements in the country’s Balance of Payment situation towards the end of last year compared to the same period in 2019.
In the December quarter of last year (2020), the current and capital account balances stood at a deficit of $296.2million while the financial account balance stood at a deficit of $149m.
This was a marked improvement compared to the December quarter of 2019, when current and capital account balances stood at $815.1m and the financial account balance stood at $805.7m.
FBoS attributed the improvement in current and capital accounts to “decreases in import of machinery and transport equipment, decreases in import of sea transport services and increases in personal transfers from abroad”.
The improvement in financial account balance was due to “decrease in loans”.
According to FBoS, the current account records the value of Fiji’s transactions with the rest of the world in goods, services, primary income, and secondary income.
The capital account has two components – capital transfers and the acquisition or disposal of non-produced, non-financial assets.
Financial account records financial transactions involving Fiji claims on assets and liabilities to non-residents.
