Despite negative growth recorded for Samoa’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic review by the Ministry of Finance for the June quarter of 2020/2021 has concluded that there is evidence of improvements and resilience.

The findings of the Ministry's review was highlighted in a Quarterly Economic Review report released by the Ministry of Finance.

The review summarises the state of the economy during the fourth quarter of 2020/2021 (April–June 2021) and the annual review (July 2020–June 2021).

The economic review revealed that the real gross domestic product (G.D.P.) for the June quarter of FY2020/21 amounted to $461.0 million, recording a decline of -1.8 per cent compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous Fiscal Year 2019/20.

“This trend marks the seventh consecutive quarters of a negative growth for the economy since the endemic and pandemic,” reads the economic review.

“There is evidence of improvements and resilience in some of the industries compared to all other quarters.”

The industries that contributed positively to the improvements were accommodation and restaurants (122.9 per cent), fishing (45.5 per cent), construction (9.6 per cent), agriculture (6.8 per cent), personal and other services (4.8 per cent), ownership of dwellings (2.2 per cent), food and beverages (2.1 per cent) and public administration (0.9 per cent). 

“On the contrary, industries that contributed negatively to the growth were business services, electricity and water, transport, other manufacturing, financial services, construction and commerce (by -34.6 per cent, -21.2 per cent, -20.3 per cent, -9.4 per cent, -9.4 per cent, -3.2 per cent and -2.9 per cent, respectively) when compared to the same quarter of the previous financial year.”

For the fiscal year 2020/2021, the G.D.P. at constant prices recorded a steep decline of -8.1 per cent when compared to the fiscal year ending 2019/20. The sharp downturn reflects the ongoing harmful effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main industries which contributed to this decline include: accommodation and restaurants (-64.7 per cent), business services (-51.9 per cent), transport (-35.7 per cent), construction (-25.1 per cent), financial services (-7.2 per cent), communication (-6.3 per cent), commerce (-6.3 per cent), electricity and water (-4.6 per cent) and fishing (-0.1 per cent). 

But there were a few industries that grew positively during the reviewing annual period and these include: personal and other services (9.2 per cent), food and beverages manufacturing (7 per cent), public administration (3.7 per cent), ownership of dwellings (1.8 per cent), and agriculture (1 per cent).

In addition, the total number of persons in formal paid employment stood at 24,261 at the end of the June quarter FY 2020/21. It decreased by -0.4 per cent (96 employees) when compared to the same quarter of 2019/2020. 

This was fuelled by the decreases in accommodation, fishing, construction, other services, transport, other manufacturing, health and other business services by -48.4 per cent, -15.7 per cent, -10.7 per cent, -4.5 per cent, -4.2 per cent, -1.6 per cent, -0.8 per cent and -0.2 per cent.

“On a positive note, number of formal employment showed improvements from the comparable quarter of 2019/20 in communication (17.6 per cent), education (15.1 per cent), food manufacturing (8.8 per cent), personal services (7.6 per cent), restaurants (5.4 per cent), commerce (4.9 per cent), financial services (3.5 per cent), agriculture (3.4 per cent), public administration (3.3 per cent), electricity (3.1 per cent) and water (2.6 per cent) respectively.

“As the country continues its restriction on its international borders, the June period under review makes it another consecutive quarter whereby no visitor arrivals and visitor earnings were recorded, thus continuing to have an adverse impact the tourism sector.

“Reserves increased by $138.41 million to stand at $732.68 million when compared to the fourth quarter of FY2019/20. This was equivalent to 10.7 months of imports, an increase from the 8.4 months recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.”