New figures from the US Department of Commerce show the American Samoan economy is under pressure.
The co-chair of the governor's economic advisory council of American Samoa, David Robinson, met with US bureau of economic analysis officials yesterday to look at the newly collated GDP data.
He says American Samoa needs to use the information to attract investment and new enterprise as the tuna cannery industry is vulnerable and handouts from the US are likely to be cut back.
"As the Federal Government has got to start paying for some the stimulus package, the bail out funds that they've made available to US companies. So we're all going to be under some considerable pressure to tighten our belts and we might not possibly be able to expect the same sort of level of aid funding that we've been used to in the past."
David Robinson says while the economic news is disappointing people will need to look towards new ways of creating jobs in the Territory though tourism, new manufacturing ventures and using the new fibre optic cable capacity.
