Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, La’auli Leuatea Polataivao has reassured Parliament that when it comes to the Government’s financial stability, “money is not the problem.”
Savali newspaper reports La’auli’s frustrations were prompted by the unsubstantiated on-line gossips and innuendoes claiming that either Government is on the verge of financial bankruptcy or Government is broke.
La’auli’s comment is substantiated by Central Bank of Samoa’s Economy Report for the first 4 months of the Current Fiscal Year, which states that the Government’s Gross Official Foreign Reserves is at $785.32 million tala at the end of October 2022 which is “1.7% higher than the same month last year.”
“At this level, this was sufficient to cover 9 months of imports which was lower than 11.4 months at the end of October 2021,” noted the Central Bank Report.
The Report further cited a decrease in External Debts from $1,003.21 million to $909.16 million which reflects a 9.3 % drop.
For the Annual Debt Servicing, at the end of September 2022 quarter the following is cited by the Economy Report;
ANNUAL DEBT SERVICING (AT END SEPTEMBER 2022 QUARTER)
$89.16 million, which was 150.3 percent higher than $35.62 million in the year up to September 2021. This large hike reflects the end of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which Samoa is a part of, and the resumption of normal debt servicing repayments. This was equivalent to
• 13.37 percent of recurrent revenue
• 11.29 percent of foreign reserves or
• 26.07 percent of total exports of goods and services.
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