Samoa's foreign reserves has grown over the last three years, rising from $490.7 million at the end of 2018-2019 financial year (pre-COVID) to $812.7 million at the end of the FY2021/2022. 

This data was collected from the latest national accounts data that was supplied by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics as well as collate from a report published by the Central Bank of Samoa. The report noted the impacts of the widespread of the COVID-19 pandemic had on the economy of Samoa. 

However, despite the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a flow of financial assistance to Samoa from other partners and donors during the lockdowns and the closure of international borders. 

The large inflows of aid grant funds for Samoa's Covid-19 response, and general budget support funds from its usual development partners, resulted in an improvement in the country’s official foreign reserves during the pandemic.

According to the report, Samoa's foreign reserves increased from SAT$490.7 million at end FY2018/2019 (pre-COVID) to a total level of SAT$732.7 million in FY2020/2021 (or equivalent to 10.7 months of imports) and SAT$812.7 million in FY2021/2022 (10.9 months of imports). 

"Similarly, the domestic financial system was relatively resilient and sound despite the negative impact of the COVID pandemic on employment and production.

"The commercial banks were in good shape despite the immediate shutdown of the tourism industry (who were clients of the banks). 

"The commercial banks’ remained well capitalised while the non-performing loans were low and the provisioning by banks were more than adequate. The commercial banks also were able to offer COVID relief assistance to their various clients during the pandemic.

Nevertheless, the closure of Samoa's international borders as preventative measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from March of 2020 had resulted in a complete loss of visitor earnings. 

It dropped from over $500 million to zero for at least two years as well as loss of employment opportunities for many working in the tourism industry. 

"However, this huge drop in tourism earnings was outweighed by the pickup in remittances from our families (diaspora) residing aboard (mainly in New Zealand, Australia and the US) as well as a pickup in seasonal workers’ income due to more opportunities offered by New Zealand and Australia," said the report. 

"In addition, Samoa received large inflows of aid grant funds for its COVID-19 Response and general budget support funds from its usual development partners like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its bilateral partners of Australia, New Zealand, People's Republic of China and Japan. 

"These financial assistances helped protect Samoa from the pandemic as well as coping with the negative impact of isolation during these unprecedented times."

However, the re-opening of Samoa's international borders on 1 August 2022 has provided the much needed pickup in domestic economic activities across all sectors. 

"The outlook on inflation, however, is still uncertain due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. There are early signs that global inflation is starting to slow down given the aggressive monetary policy tightening by the US, the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand and many other advanced economies," the report said. 

"However, there is still risk that Russia-Ukraine war could intensify and drive up the price of fuel and gas in the months ahead, which will ultimately push Samoa’s headline inflation further higher in 2023.

"The Central Bank of Samoa will continue to monitor these geo-political events and macroeconomic developments that could impact Samoa inflation going forward."