Monetary policy’s role in the COVID-19 recovery has effectively reached its limits. With the Official Cash Rate (OCR) currently at 0.25%, there is little room to move lower. The Government is now looking to infrastructure as a key opportunity to keep people employed, stimulate the regions and maintain the productive capacity of the economy, thereby enabling New Zealand to recover in the quickest time possible.

“Today’s announcement expands on the $12 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme, which invested in additional transport, health and education infrastructure nationwide,” said John Marker, Deloitte partner. “Now that the money has been allocated the next step is to ensure the projects selected meet the needs of our COVID-19 recovery.”

The process for selecting appropriate projects, ensuring governance structures are in place and most importantly that success measures are met will be key.

“Though significant, this announcement marks the first steps on our COVID-19 recovery and the true impacts of today’s decisions will be felt in months and years to come,” said Marker.

“This announcement sets a clear path for the future, and the next phase will be important as we seek to rebuild better than before and use this significant investment to address long-standing deficiencies in our infrastructure and the sector that supports it.”

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