ASEDA report shows trends in revenue patterns in the territory

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The FY2022 2nd Quarter Continuing Disclosure Report Updated and resubmitted  by the American Samoa Economic Development Authority (ASEDA) on May 19, 2022, for the FY ending September 30, 2021, as part of its requirement to bondholders of the 2015, 2018, and 2021 series, shows the changing economic landscape of American Samoa through a breakdown of revenues ASG collected, by categories from 2017 to 2021.

For Revenues of Largest Corporate Income Tax Payers by Category Canneries was the largest contributor in 2017 -18.8%, followed by Petroleum- 14% and Technology 10.2%. The same pattern is repeated in 2018, with the Canneries and Petroleum 38.2% and 32.8% respectively. However, Technology no longer shows up and instead Retail becomes 3rd in line of the largest contributor with 14.9%.

However, in 2019 the trend changes, where Canneries become the 2nd largest contributor with 22.2% and Petroleum the largest with 24.6%, while Retail stays in 3rd place with 12.6%. And in 2020, Autosales take over as the leading corporate contributor with 20.1%, significantly beating out Canneries with 12.5 %, Petroleum- 11.6% and Retail 10.9%. Restaurant/ FastFood equal the Canneries contribution, while Insurance was up at 13.9% coming in 2nd to Autosales.

In 2021, the Canneries’ contribution falls to 9%, Petroleum rises to 16.9%, Retail reduces to 8% while Autosales continues as the number one contributor at 17.8%, with Wholesale revenues for the first time showing a double digit percentage of 11.1% for 3rd place while Insurance drops to 4th place at 11%. Restaurant/ Fast Food in 2021 drops to 9.7%, but is still higher than the Canneries.

Local economic trends seem to show that the drop in Canneries and Petroleum contributions are probably due to the COVID-19 restrictions that saw the canneries closing for a while, while less driving for a Petroleum decrease and world shortages due to delayed shipping and COVID curfews. People buying in bulk due to lockdowns and supply shortages is seen in Wholesales contributions, however puzzling is the Autosales category, which while dropping by around 3% in 2021, is still in the double digits from 2020. It would seem new vehicles were big in 2020 and 2021, which could be a reflection of the extra cash that flooded the local economy due to federal COVID money.

A point of interest — largest excise tax payers is the Tobacco category — with 2021 bringing in $16+ Million up from around $12Million in 2017. From 2017 t0 2021, the trend in this category is a continual rise in excise tax collected.