Economy - overview: Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports and a growing tourist industry are the major sources of foreign exchange. Sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial activity. Roughly 300,000 tourists visit each year, including thousands of Americans following the start of regularly scheduled non-stop air service from Los Angeles. Fiji's growth slowed in 1997 because the sugar industry suffered from low world prices and rent disputes between farmers and landowners. Drought in 1998 further damaged the sugar industry, but its recovery in 1999 contributed to robust GDP growth. Long-term problems include low investment and uncertain property rights.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $5.9 billion (1999 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 7.8% (1999 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $7,300 (1999 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 16.5% industry: 25.5% services: 58% (1998 est.)
Population below poverty line: NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: NA%
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0% (1999 est.)
Labor force: 235,000
Labor force - by occupation: subsistence agriculture 67%, wage earners 18%, salary earners 15% (1987)