Nothing to Smile About in Economic And Fiscal Update

There is no good news in the pre-election economic and fiscal update released today, says New Zealand First.

“No one takes the so-called fiscal surplus of $297 million seriously. It is purely for presentational purposes so the Government can claim it is in surplus,” says New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“This so-called surplus is achieved by all sorts of manipulation and creative accounting – for example, understating the costs of the Christchurch rebuild, freezing departmental budgets and pushing expenditure out years.

“On employment no improvement is forecast. The growth forecast is also down from the Budget figure.

“The Government’s failure to rebalance the economy over the past six years is stark.

“What has been exposed in today’s Budget update is the underlying vulnerability of the New Zealand economy. The balance of payments is forecast to increase to 4.8 per cent of GDP in year to Match 2015 – due to worsening terms of trade.

“Thanks to National’s economic mismanagement, New Zealand could be in real trouble very quickly because we are already on thin ice.”

ENDS

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