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Monday, August 28, 2023

Robert MacCulloch: New IMF data ranks NZ's GDP growth as worst out of 159 nations in world along with Equatorial Guinea


What has PM Hipkins done? The newly released IMF Regional Economic Outlooks say NZ is projected to be the worst performing economy in the entire world in 2024 in terms of GDP growth, with one exception, Equatorial Guinea, which has been ripped apart by civil war. No other time in our history has NZ been bottom of the planet.

The details? NZ is projected to be in & out of recession at 0.8% GDP growth in 2024. Growth for 34 Asia-Pacific nations is expected to be way higher, averaging 4.4% (see links below). The IMF Outlook for Western Hemisphere has figures for North & South America. NZ is bottom out of those 36 sovereign nations. (Puerto Rico is the only place worse, but it's a territory). The figures for 45 nations in Western & Eastern Europe again rank NZ bottom, with Italy. The Europe report is titled, "Taming Inflation Without a Recession". What would ours be? "Taming Inflation whilst Engineering a Recession"? Moreover, the African Regional Economic Outlook places NZ worse than all 44 nations there (with the Equatorial Guinea exception). The Middle East & Central Asia Regional Outlook doesn't give individual country figures, though their average growth is projected to be 3.5% in 2024, so looks like we'd be bottom of those countries as well.

Isn't it time our disgraced Finance Minister - who self-declared NZ's "world-beating" Covid health outcomes would go hand-in-hand with world-beating economic outcomes - takes responsibility & resigns? Isn't it time the Reserve Bank Governor resigns for printing $50 billion unnecessarily, causing inflation & then forcing NZ unnecessarily into recession? Will the whole sorry bunch of them keep blaming Putin & flooding for their failures? If it was all down to Putin, why is the entire world projected to outperform us in 2024? Weren't others impacted by Ukraine similarly? Of course they weren't. The impact of that war on NZ was less, since most of our energy is hydro & we import no food from Ukraine.

The PM doesn't add up. The Finance Minister won't add up. The Reserve Bank can't add up. They've gone and bust an amazing country. A lot of work now needs to be done to fix it.

Sources
Asia Pacific Region
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/APAC/Issues/2023/04/11/regional-economic-outlook-for-asia-and-pacific-april-2023

North, Central and South America
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/WH/Issues/2023/04/13/regional-economic-outlook-western-hemisphere-april-2023

Sub-Saharan Africa
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/SSA/Issues/2023/04/14/regional-economic-outlook-for-sub-saharan-africa-april-2023

Europe
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/EU/Issues/2023/04/09/regional-economic-outlook-for-europe-april-2023

Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.

14 comments:

DeeM said...

A damning summary of the dire economic mismanagement NZ has suffered at the hands of the worst, most incompetent socialist government ever and a Reserve Bank governor who will be treated very unkindly by the history books.

And a salutary lesson of what happens when woke groupthink displaces common-sense and racism becomes a top priority.

Anna Mouse said...

The saddest part is that these people will not let the door hit them on the way out.

They will scuttle off like Cullen did and he did not do as much damage.

This is IMO a treason upon New Zealand, her economy and her citizens.

Anonymous said...

To turn nz into a poor pacific island has been their plan all along..and to remove democracy.

Anonymous said...

The current trajectory resembles Venezuela when it went through a similar ideological period, the good news is that once 80% of the economy is gone, or an 80% fall in GDP, we return to slight growth. We have much to look forward, if they remain in play.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the IMF has been behind every countries downfall, because they lend them lots of money, BUT with nasty strings attached. The IMF lent lots of money to NZ in the 60's, that had nasty strings attached.
Sri Lanka here we come.

Rob Beechey said...

No wonder Ardern galloped for the sidelines. These destructive Marxists have trashed our country in the name of Marxism, protected by the State controlled media. Anyone voting for them should be named and shamed.

Anonymous said...

But that's just the economic situation. Then there is the education fiasco,the racial division, the transgender propaganda and sexualising of small children, the covid vaccine lies and harm, the increase in people on welfare, the racial division and failure in health care, the increase in people with mental health problems, the climate change deception, the destruction of free speech, the destruction of businesses and the loss of democracy !

John S said...

If this is real then it must become the No. 1 election issue. Every opportunity must be taken to put this before Robertson and Hipkins for an explanation. What the hell is going on in this country?

Anonymous said...



Given this verdict, this time the responsibility of voters does not stop in October - it must continue to hold a new govt to account every day from 2023-26.

And, increasingly, NZers must be ready to fight for the values that they want to defend.

Anonymous said...

Will we see this on the 6pm news tonight?, No doubt it will be swept under the carpet - most corrupt govt and media ever here nowdays. Australia is looking more appealing by the day.

Kevn said...

Nek minit a gong for robberson as well. For a job done incredibly poorly. That seems to be the qualification.
Just in time for the Tuesday morning Hosking radio roast/interview.

robert Arthur said...

The sad thing is that, low as it is, gdp includes a vast number of useless make work exercises and others created by lawlessness; teaching of te reo, making of signs in, ram raid repairs, endless maori "consultation", cone shepherding, security guards in libraries, rubbish sorting and sham recycling, building demolition, etc etc.

Anonymous said...

Anything from IMF means JackShit. We need a variety of other far more realistic indicators.

Allan said...

"Rock star economy" to "Rock bottom economy" in 6 years. Well I suppose that this is an achievement, but not one many would be proud of.