Sri Lanka experience ‘a learning curve’ for Fiji

SRI Lanka’s experience with its economic collapse can be a learning curve for Fiji, says University of the South Pacific senior economics lecturer Dr Neelesh Gounder.

He said this was particularly of interest to Fiji as a small island developing state with a number of vulnerabilities.

“Debt in Sri Lanka had grown in a big way, however, the economy wasn’t growing and because the economy wasn’t growing, government revenue wasn’t growing as well,” he said.

He attributed Sri Lanka’s economy collapse to a number of factors, ranging from economic policies and political institutional arrangements. Dr Gounder said things could change very quickly and it was important for any government or policymakers to be very mindful of this fact.

“We are small island states. We have special challenges and our vulnerabilities arise from the fact that we are endowed with special characteristics based on the fact that we’re a small island state.

“We have to be particularly mindful of that and those vulnerabilities can play an important role in ensuring that the current scenarios can very quickly change. So I think policymakers and the government has to be very, very alert in terms of the debt we have, how do we manage the debt, ensuring that the economy continuously grows.

“So that the government is able to not only fund public services invest in infrastructure, but also to ensure that we are able to meet the debt servicing requirements and ensuring that the economy is continuously expanding, continuously growing so that we also lift more and more people out of out of poverty.”