Economy – Speech by Secretary to the Treasury Iain Rennie, ‘Bending two curves: New Zealand’s intertwined economic and fiscal challenges’

“I want to talk today about what it means to integrate fiscal and economic advice, with an eye to the long-term horizon. I will lay out the productivity and fiscal sustainability challenges that New Zealand faces. But I will also give you a sense of the broad solutions and policy toolkits that governments will have to contemplate over time to address those issues successfully, in the Treasury’s judgement.

The crux of my message today is that New Zealand needs to bend two curves. One is the long-term economic growth trajectory, which needs to bend upwards to expand our productive capacity and national real incomes. The second is our net public debt trajectory, which needs to bend downwards to rebuild the fiscal buffers that have been a major source of New Zealand’s resilience and ability to respond to shocks over recent decades. These are medium- and long-term challenges, but we need to address them soon.”