Keith Woodford: New Zealand’s current account deficit, now running at $27 bln per annum.....

New Zealand’s current account deficit, now running at $27 bln per annum, is increasingly dominated by interest on historical deficits plus repatriated profits to overseas owners. Export growth is the only possible pathway to solve the problem

Almost everyone in New Zealand knows that per capita incomes have been drifting backwards for at least two years. Looking back further, Dean Brunskill here at interest.co.nz has authored a graph showing that per capita GDP in September 2024, which is the latest available data, was essentially the same as five years previously in pre-COVID September 2019.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/9/23

Better-than-expected BoP figures give Robertson something to bray about – but revisions helped, and the deficit is still troubling

The latest balance of payments statistics – providing a broad measure of what the country earns and spends internationally – gave grist to Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s publicity mill today.

The current account deficit narrowed to 7.5 per cent of GDP in the June year compared with 8.2 per cent of GDP in March.

Point of Order: Finance Minister has set himself a herculean task in framing an election-winning budget

Finance Minister Grant Robertson may be getting grey hairs as he toils on what his backbench colleagues hope will be an election-winning budget (due for presentation on May 18).

The difficulty is that economic problems are piling up. The cost-of-living crisis is worsening – inflation, although it may have stabilised, remains stubbornly high at 6.7% and NZ’s current account deficit, at $34bn, is threatening the country’s credit rating.

Point of Order: Shipping coals to Newcastle? No, it is being shipped to NZ – increasingly

While the govt funds those who switch to renewables

We were rewarded – on visiting Kiwiblog today – by finding this chart from The Facts, which shows how coal imports into this country have almost quadrupled under Labour.