Paul Goldsmith - Finance
25 November 2019
The economy looks set to continue to slow with yet another downgrade to New Zealand’s growth projections, National’s
Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.
“ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley is now forecasting annual growth of less than 2 per cent for the year to March 2020,
which is made up almost entirely by population growth.
“Tuffley is absolutely right when he says ‘growth can and should be stronger’. Our export prices are at historically
high levels and so far have been largely unaffected by slowing international growth, interest rates are low and the
Government inherited big surpluses.
“Yet our growth per person, which is the true measure of the progress we are making as a country, is currently only 0.5
per cent. That is well behind most of the OECD and below the 1.7 per cent average during the last five years under
National.
“The economy has slowed primarily because New Zealanders lack confidence in this Government’s economic policies,
policies that have driven up costs and created massive uncertainty. The Government has also utterly failed on delivering
its flagship policies, most notably KiwiBuild.
“The Government should be stimulating the economy with much needed tax relief for hardworking Kiwis and by delivering
the infrastructure New Zealand desperately needs.
“National will index tax thresholds to inflation, repeal the Regional Fuel Tax and get on with building the roads this
Government has either cancelled or postponed. We have also floated other ideas for stimulating the economy such as
accelerated depreciation for business investment or tax relief for small businesses.
“If National is elected in 2020 we’ll stop the excuses and get on with implementing our positive economic plan to
restore business confidence and revive the economy.”
ends