Pacific economies

This is according to the bank's Asian Development Outlook of April 2023.

ADB director-general for the Pacific, Leah Gutierrez, said the signs were good but warned about some potential hurdles.

"A broad-based recovery across the Pacific is now on the horizon as the impact of the pandemic recedes and economies reopen," she said.

"But this recovery faces several headwinds, including structural risks from disaster impacts and climate change.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says Pacific member economies contracted by 5.8 percent in 2020 due to Covid-19 but it forecasts a recovery by year's end.

The ADB tips 1.4 percent growth but notes that is contingent on a return of tourism, a start of delayed construction, and the resumption of labour mobility and international trade.

But the bank's Pacific economist Rommel Rabanal said not every country will return to growth and that there are ongoing risks.

On Wednesday, New Zealand became the first country to ratify the PACER Plus agreement, which Australia and nine Pacific Island countries have signed.

Cleo Paskal, of the global think tank Chatham House, said enforced free trade will undermine customary land holding and social capital systems in the Pacific.

She said once those economies are weakened, China will pick up the pieces.

The Asian Development Bank is predicting just over one percent growth down from a forecast 2.2 percent in April.

After the Hela quake, liquefied natural gas production in the region's biggest economy is forecast to be down at least ten percent on 2017 levels.

LNG accounts for 14 percent of Papua New Guinea's earnings.

But the bank says strong logging and mining has improved the outlook for Solomon Islands and fishing license revenue has done the same for Tuvalu.

Nauru also sees an improved growth forecast for the year to 3.8 percent.

The ministers, from Pacific Islands Forum member countries, have been discussing issues critical to improving development in the Pacific.

One of these is to work out how to make use of the wealth they have within the region to help finance development.

The concept of a regional finance facility has been floated for the past two years but a firm decision is yet to be made.

And the Forum's trade commissioner to China, David Morris, said there had been a lot of discussion on the need to engage with China and other key Asian economies.

RNZ reports 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.

ADB’s flagship annual economic publication, Asian Development Outlook 2016, projects that Pacific economies will grow by an average 3.8% in 2016, down from 7.0% last year, mainly due to pressures faced by Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Fiji—the region’s largest economies.