SUVA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The poverty rate in Fiji has been rising, and the country's cost-of-basic-needs poverty rate reached 29.9 percent in 2019-2020, according to a report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), local media reported on Thursday.
Also, Fiji has been reclassified from Group C to Group B countries which means Fiji will now be able to access concessional financing from the ADB.
The report noted that with modest economic growth rates, averaging 3.1 percent from 2015 to 2019, Fiji has found it challenging to significantly reduce poverty.
It said that at current rates, Fiji is unlikely to meet its poverty reduction target, which requires halving poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
The report said Fiji's human development index rating for 2019 was 0.743, second highest among Pacific island countries. That positions Fiji in the high human development classification at 93 of 189 countries and regions.
Fiji's economic growth from 2010 to 2019 averaged 3.3 percent.
The ADB said Fiji's economy contracted by 0.4 percent in 2019, largely because of lower public spending coinciding with a global downswing, before plunging by 19 percent in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted tourism and related sectors.
Fiji's economic contraction during 2020-2021 was the third largest among ADB's developing country members in the Pacific.
The island nation relies on tourism, which can be a volatile source of growth and revenues, the report said.
Tourism accounted for about 32 percent of Fiji's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, and that share declined to 10.9 percent of GDP in 2020 because of travel restrictions associated with COVID-19.
Fiji's economic outlook has been severely affected by the pandemic both through the sudden stop in tourism and the effects on related sectors, and by extended domestic lockdowns in response to major virus outbreaks in 2020 and 2021.
ADB's latest forecast for the country's GDP is a 5 percent contraction in 2021.
It also said a rebound could occur in 2022 and 2023, but that will be contingent on the resumption of tourism. ■