Fiji income falls

FIJI’S average annual income fell by US$5O between 1987 and 1988, while comparable figures increased elsewhere in the South Pacific, the World Bank reported in July.

Using the gross national product (GNP) per capita measure, the World Bank said that Fiji’s total was $1,520 for 1988, a decline from $1,570 in 1987 and from $l,BlO in 1984.

All other nations in the South Pacific for which both 1987 and 1988 data were available showed increases these were Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Western Samoa, with 1988 GNP averages of $B3O, $BlO and $640, respectively (see table.) Fiji, despite its decline in recent years, continues to lead the region in per capita GNP, and in life expectancy, where the World Bank estimates that residents of Fiji will live to an average age of 71. No other nation in the region tops 66.

The World Bank’s annual release of its social indicators, a widely-regarded eco nomic and social “report card”, carries with it more information on the South Pacific than in earlier years. This year, for the first time, GNP, inflation-rate and life-expectancy data are issued on Vanuatu, Kiribati and Solomon Islands, meaning that of the independent nations only Nauru (with a very high GNP be cause of its remaining phosphate) and Tuvalu (presumably with a low GNP) are left out of the statistics. The World Bank does not gather data on entities which it

regards as not totally independent.

Rates of inflation in the island nations were generally modest, certainly com pared to some troubled economies else where, with the average range for the period 1980-1988 being from a low of 4.3 per cent per year for Vanuatu to a high of 13.1 per cent per year for the Solomons. □