Growth stronger than expected - Cullen

“The latest quarterly gross domestic product results are at the top end of market expectations and point to the continuing resilience of the New Zealand economy,” Finance Minister Michael Cullen said today.

Growth for the March quarter was 2.3 per cent; the highest result achieved in 18 quarters. Growth for the March year was 3.6 per cent.

“This continues a strong run. In the five years from the March quarter 1999 to this year, New Zealand has achieved growth of 21.7 per cent. Population growth over the same period was just 5.6 per cent.

“What these figures show is that living standards for New Zealanders have increased,” Dr Cullen said.

He said the data showed that growth over the quarter was broad-based: household spending was up 2.9 per cent and exports were up 3.4 per cent.

“Particularly encouraging is that business investment rose 4.1 per cent taking the increase for the March year to 12.6 per cent.

“Obviously it is too early to be dogmatic, but the evidence suggests that the economy is continuing to outperform official forecasts,” Dr Cullen said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>