The Fiji Bureau of Statistics has completed its rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) series to the year 2011. Data gathered from various sources was used to quantify the contribution of the various productive economic activities to GDP. GDP is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year and a rebase needs to be carried out at reasonable intervals of time to factor in structural changes taking place in the economy. The GDP will now be based on the structure of the economy in 2011.
NEW BASE
The compilation procedures were in accordance with the United Nations System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008). The economic activities are classified according to the Fiji Standard Industrial Classification (FSIC) 2010 which is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification Revision 4. Data for the compilation work was sourced from administrative records, surveys and special studies conducted by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics.
NEW WEIGHTS
Industries have been assigned weights based on their contribution to the total net output of the economy in the base year. The total weight of the industries equals 100.0. Table 1 provides a comparison of the two base period weights for the various industries and their absolute change between 2008 and 2011. From Table 1 it can be noted that the Manufacturing Industry had the highest weight of 14.1 in 2011, which means it contributed 14.1 percent to the total net output of the economy in the 2011 base year.
FIJI’S GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) 2011 REBASE
Print
FBoS Release No: 51, 2015
31st August 2015
The Fiji Bureau of Statistics has completed its rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) series to the year 2011. Data gathered from various sources was used to quantify the contribution of the various productive economic activities to GDP. GDP is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year and a rebase needs to be carried out at reasonable intervals of time to factor in structural changes taking place in the economy. The GDP will now be based on the structure of the economy in 2011.
NEW BASE
The compilation procedures were in accordance with the United Nations System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008). The economic activities are classified according to the Fiji Standard Industrial Classification (FSIC) 2010 which is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification Revision 4. Data for the compilation work was sourced from administrative records, surveys and special studies conducted by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics.
NEW WEIGHTS
Industries have been assigned weights based on their contribution to the total net output of the economy in the base year. The total weight of the industries equals 100.0. Table 1 provides a comparison of the two base period weights for the various industries and their absolute change between 2008 and 2011. From Table 1 it can be noted that the Manufacturing Industry had the highest weight of 14.1 in 2011, which means it contributed 14.1 percent to the total net output of the economy in the 2011 base year.
Table 1: Comparison of 2008 and 2011 Weights
gdp11Ra
Note: Any discrepancy in totals and sum of components are due to rounding.
Analysis
Overall
The Manufacturing industry has the highest weight in the 2011 base with 14.1 compared to 14.4 in 2008. The Wholesale and Retail Trade ranks second with 11.7 compared to 13.2 in 2008. The Financial & Insurance industry’s weight of 9.2 ranks it third followed by Agriculture’s (excluding forestry and fishing industries) 8.2 and Public Administration & Defence’s 7.6. The other industries followed with lower weights.
Analysis Continued
Primary Sector
Lower production of taro and sugarcane contributed to a drop in the primary sector's weight in 2011.
Industries
Between 2008 and 2011;
The combined weight of Industries increased by 1.5points.
The Mining & Quarrying, Electricity and Water Supply & Sewerage industry’s weight increased by 1.2, 1.0 and 0.1 points respectively. The contribution of Mining & Quarrying improved due to the high volume of production by the industry in 2011 when compared to 2008. The Electricity industry also recorded an increase as a result of a decline in the fuel expenditure.
The weights of the Manufacturing and Construction industries decreased by 0.3 and 0.5 points respectively.
Services
A significant increase was noted for Education and Public Administration & Defence industries however these were to some extent offset by the combined negative change of other service industries for 2011 resulting in a small increase of 0.4 points in the weight of the Service sector compared to 2008.
Changes in Growth Rates
The GDP estimates and growth rates for 2012 and 2013 released earlier by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics used the 2008 base. Those estimates have been revised using the