Samoa’s economy continues to decline. The Gross Domestic Product for the March 2021 Quarter at constant prices amounts to $459.6 million, decreasing by 7.0% compared to March 2020 quarter. This follows a decrease of 8.0% in December 2020.

This is outline in the Samoa Bureau Statistics GDP report on the second quarter for the current financial year.

The Commerce industry was the primary contributor to the decline in GDP as it relapsed in the March 2021 quarter following an increase in the previous quarter.

Commerce continues to be the biggest industry in the economy holding the largest share of 31.7 percent of total nominal GDP.

It’s total value added in real terms amounted to $145.9 million for the March 2021 quarter, decreasing by 10.1%. It also went down by 6.7% when compared to the previous quarter.

The performance by the industry reflects the decrease in wholesaling activities related to food, stationeries and agricultural equipment. Moreover, remittances as recorded by the Central Bank of Samoa for the quarter under review went down by 2.0% when compared to the March 2020 quarter.

Samoa’s economy continues to decline due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting economic activity within the March 2021 quarter in terms of international travel restrictions, reduced trade, global control measures and national lockdown.

The growth in the quarter under review makes it the sixth quarterly decline for the economy which started in December 2019.

The pandemic has directly affected most sectors of the economy with wholesaling activities, travel and tour related activities, construction, air and land transport, accommodation and restaurant and financial services being the hardest hit.