David
PARKER
Spokesperson for Finance

5 September 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT
Bill English takes a superficial view of PMI

Bill English’s analysis of manufacturing is superficial and ignores the underlying problems facing manufacturing in this country, Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker says.

“Today in the house Bill English seized on the headline figures from the Performance of Manufacturing Index but has clearly failed to look at the issues behind it. That’s not good enough from a finance minister. He needs to take a closer look.

“Bill English in Question Time admitted he did not know that the rise in the index he was boasting about has been driven by construction manufacturing for the Canterbury rebuild.

“This does not represent growth in the export manufacturing sector.

“Mr English also admitted he did not know that manufactured exports, especially outside the primary sector, are dropping.

“The real indication of the health of manufacturing lies in exports. The fact is that that manufactured exports are lower than they were last year in real terms.

“Bill English promised to rebalance the economy. But the fact that the biggest drop is in non-primary exports shows that our over-reliance on the primary sector is getting worse. The recent problems faced by Fonterra shows how dangerous that reliance is,” says David Parker.

ENDS

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