Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is anative of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
New Zealand was governed in 2023 by former PM Chris Hipkins, and before him, of course, Jacinda Ardern. How did they do, especially in comparison with other nations in our Asia Pacific region of the world? The IMF has released the figures.
In 2023 NZ had the worst level of GDP growth at just 0.6 per cent. The IMF projects NZ will grow by zero in 2024, again the worst in our region. The average increase in GDP for Asia Pacific last year was 5.0 per cent and this year it’s projected to be 4.6 per cent.
In terms of inflation, NZ had the second highest level at 5.7 per cent, just behind the Philippines at 6.0 per cent. The average inflation rate in Asia was 2.6 per cent. As for our current account (difference between exports and imports), NZ’s was by far the worst at -6.9 per cent. Our exports are rising now, but the deficit is still projected to be worst in the region in both 2024 and 2025.
As for the unemployment rate, it started rising as the recession that Chris Hipkins and RBNZ Governor Orr deliberately ‘engineered’ got going and is expected to be second worst in the Asia-Pacific region both this year and in 2025. Whatever new PM Chris Luxon’s faults, anything is an improvement on Chris Hipkins and the country’s worst finance minister ever, Grant Robertson, as well as former PM Ardern, who divided the country and destroyed NZ’s social fabric with her ‘holier than thou’ moralizing, more than any PM before her.
And what is Labour’s solution to the problem? Bang in more taxes.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
