Due to improved global economic environment, most Pacific island economies are expected to perform slightly better in 2010 than in 2009, Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday.
In the first publication for 2010 on Pacific Economy, the Pacific islands are expected to expand by 0.5 percent in 2010, after contracting by an estimated 1.4 percent in 2009, the ADB said.
Vanuatu is expected to remain the best performing Pacific island economy, bolstered by the benefits of recent improvements to its economic policy. Of all the Pacific island economies, only the Fiji Islands and Palau are expected to contract in 2010, an improvement from 2009 when five economies in the region contracted.
The overall growth rate for the Pacific region (the Pacific islands, plus Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste) is expected to rise slightly in 2010 to 3.7 percent, from 2.4 percent in 2009, largely driven by resource-rich Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.
The report said that many of the Pacific island governments are still feeling the impact of the economic slowdown on their tax revenue, so fiscal pressures remain. Those pressures are particularly intense in the Fiji Islands, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga.
"The working poor, those that have jobs but earn too little to meet their basic needs, have been more exposed to the economic slowdown than others as construction, manufacturing and retail and wholesale activity weakened," said Cecile Gregory, Senior Advisor of ADB's Pacific Department.