Around $300 million was brought into the country in 2006 in remittances and this has been used to pull people out of poverty.

That is the sentiment of leading economist, Professor Warden Narsey while launching the preliminary report on Poverty and household income in Fiji in 2008-2009.

Professor said that such huge amounts of remittances have strongly counter balanced the impact of declining Gross Domestic Product per capita for Fiji and therefore should not be overlooked.

He added that though there has been a huge brain drain in the country, these people that leave are the main reason for remittances which has been a blessing.

In his presentation, it was revealed that while there was around $300 million brought in through remittance in 2006, it declined in 2007 however has seen a steady increase ever since.

Professor Narsey added that with a growing population, there has been a severe decline in the GDP since 2006 and remittances are the answer as many people depend on money from overseas to be able to meet their basic demands.

However, he added that people in the rural areas will be the most badly affected as while those in the urban areas have access to banking facility to access remittances, there has not been much focus by policy makers to address the issue of poverty in rural centes.
 
In the preliminary report, it showed that for 2008 and 2009 - 43% of Fiji's population in rural areas were living in poverty compared to a 19% in urban areas.

According to Narsey if the issue of poverty in rural areas is not looked into, there will be a higher incidence of urban drift which will Government will have to fork out more money to address the issue of squatters.

Story by: Paradise Tabucala