Publication: Pacific Economic Update, June 2025: Employ Women, Empower the Pacific - A Strategy for Uncertain Times
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2025-06-16
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2025-06-16
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The World Bank’s Pacific Economic Update (PEU) highlights critical challenges facing 11 Pacific Island countries (PIC-11), including a global economic slowdown and trade policy uncertainty, set against the backdrop of vulnerabilities from limited diversification, natural hazards, and climate-related events. To confront these formidable issues, the report underscores the importance of building resilience. It delves into empowering women with quality jobs and integrating economic and gender strategies, with a particular focus on the energy sector, for sustainable growth and stability. Growth in the PIC-11 slowed from 5.5 percent in 2023 to 3.8 percent in 2024 and is projected to decelerate further to 2.6 percent in 2025, a slower pace than previously anticipated. This slowdown primarily reflects the diminishing post-pandemic rebound in Fiji, the largest economy in the group. In Solomon Islands, economic growth has been hovering at about 2.5 percent, with further acceleration constrained by structural limitations. Additionally, the slowdown is influenced by deteriorating global economic conditions, including slower global growth, more restrictive trade policies, and increased policy uncertainty, impacting the region’s economic outlook. Part one provides an overview of recent economic developments, the outlook, and associated risks. Part two examines the challenges related to female labor force participation in the Pacific, with a focus on women in the energy sector. It offers policy recommendations to increase participation, thereby bolstering economic resilience and fostering sustainable growth.
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“World Bank. 2025. Pacific Economic Update, June 2025: Employ Women, Empower the Pacific - A Strategy for Uncertain Times. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43339 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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