Awkward economic dilemmas confront the government, as it prepares to set out its economic programme in the budget next week.
The key one is this: does it use fiscal means to reinforce the work of the Reserve Bank in damping down inflation, or does it focus on the power of the budget to win the election?
Certainly the Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, has declared it will be a “no-frills” budget. But, in the same breath, he says he wants to ease pressures on household budgets from the soaring cost-of-living.
