The economic growth outlook for Pacific Island countries is extremely volatile according the latest report from the World Bank.
The “Reducing Vulnerabilities” report predicts a stable growth outlook for East Asia and the Pacific up until 2018.
But it says the Pacific countries are particularly vulnerable given their small economies which are susceptible to external shocks from the global economy as well as from the high risk of natural disasters in the region.
A World Bank senior economist Virginia Horscroft says the report recommends that to reduce their vulnerability Pacific Island countries should focus on maximising revenue from existing resources and improving basic service delivery.
Virginia Horscroft said, “The report focuses on how their key sectors and if they are affected can have very large overall economic impacts on the countries. And the report also talks about how significantly their fisheries revenues have grown recently, for a number of the Pacific islands and how important these increases are as a source of financing for public services like Health and Education”.
