New Zealand Finance Minister says May 30 budget will show fiscal responsibility

NEW Zealand’s Finance Minister Nicola Willis said in a speech on Thursday the government would take a very fiscally responsible approach in the Budget as the government’s debt levels continue to worsen.

“The (government’s) deficit is expected to be larger next year than it is this year, before starting to improve,” Willis said in a speech to the Employers and Manufacturing Association in Auckland ahead of the release of the government’s budget and fiscal forecasts on May 30.

She added that after stripping out large one-off expenses, and adjusting for the economic cycle, the Treasury estimates a structural operating deficit of around 1.5 per cent of GDP in the current financial year. REUTERS