Thursday 23rd July 2020.
Government will need almost $100m per month to meet its debt repayment commitment in the 20221 budget. Total debt service commitment for Fiji in the financial year 2020-2021 is about $1.179 billion.
It is unfortunate that we are in this situation today as we continued with the policy of borrowing and reckless spending over the last several years. It is inconceivable that after boasting about unprecedented growth for the last 9 years, we really have little or no fiscal space when we needed it most.
Because of this legacy of borrowing and reckless spending, we had piled up debt before covid-19 hit us. Off course covid-19 now is having a drastic impact on the revenue and we have no option but to borrow more. Given government's projection of revenue of $1.6 billion, it is clear that we will have to service this massive debt repayment from the projected borrowing of $2.75 billion.
The long and short of this is that the people of Fiji will have to pay dearly for the reckless management of the economy over the last several years and COVID-19 is just going to make matters worse.
NFP Leader will be saying more in his budget reply next week.
-ENDS-
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