Finance Minister Grant Robertson has stuck to long-term commitments to climate and health while looking for short-term fixes for the immediate pain of rising interest rates.
Wellington | Before New Zealand Finance Minister Grant Robertson stood up to deliver the nation’s budget on Thursday, the headline economic figures looked strong: unemployment 3.2 per cent, wages growth 4.8 per cent and an annual growth rate of 5.6 per cent.
Yet in New Zealand there is one measure that is ruling them all: inflation. Running at 6.9 per cent over the past year, it has the Treasury predicting that it won’t fall back into the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 1-3 per cent target range until 2025.
