1. SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
What reports has he received on the economy?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
More good news: Statistics New Zealand confirmed today that the economy grew by 0.8 percent in the March 2011 quarter. This means that the economy has now grown in seven of the last eight quarters. GDP growth has been 1.5 percent in the year to 31 March, despite the devastating Canterbury earthquake. It is a tribute to the resilience of New Zealanders that through that difficult period they have nevertheless moved to increase the wealth of this country. Today’s figures show that the recovery is under way, and the pace of growth is picking up.
Quite surprisingly, manufacturing was up by 3.6 percent in the March quarter—the biggest single contributor. I have to say that this is very encouraging in a job-rich part of the economy that took a hammering under the previous Labour Government’s big-taxing, big-spending policies.
The Government is backing aspirational and enterprising Kiwis in every possible way it can. The Government is getting its own house in order with a programme that gets us back to surplus, and it brought in a range of policies that rebalances the economy from the excessive consumption and property speculation under the previous Government to a focus on savings, investment, exports, and growth over the next 4 or 5 years.