The Kiwi Prime Minister says he wants NZ's economy to grow. It got ranked near bottom of the world this week by the IMF in terms of real GDP growth. On the back of the uncertainty due to tariffs that is shaving around 0.5% off most country's project economic growth rates, the National Party may be the first in NZ history to preside over an economy that is mired in stagnation during its entire three year term of office. Last year it shrank by 1.1%. Whilst part of the reason for the slow-down continuing may now be overseas tariff-related events, the main reason holding back investment in NZ is because we can't be sure anymore our Parliament has sovereign powers. That kind of uncertainty would bring any economy to a halt. How do we know it exists? Because PM Luxon threw ACT's Treaty Principles Bill under a bus and its first clause was, "The Government of NZ has full power to govern & Parliament has full power to make laws". Should Luxon not have liked the other two clauses, why not pass an amended Bill that made that one statement? It was beneath Luxon to even debate the point. No, he prefers schmoozing with King Charles in Buckingham Palace, scheming with the UK Labour Prime Minister against the US, doing a side-trip to the Pope's service in the Vatican Palace, and visiting Turkey to fly around the Sultan's Palaces in Istanbul on a magic carpet. All to shift "the narrative" away from the Treaty. Apparently our PM thinks the Treaty has nothing to do with economic growth. Good luck with that hypothesis.
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- rmacculloch
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Its official. The figures came in yesterday from the International Monetary Fund. NZ had one of the world's worst performing economies in 2024, coming in at 183rd out of 196 nations. New Zealand and a tiny handful of other nations have shrinking GDP. Nearly all those ranked below us, being Myanmar, Haiti, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Botswana, Argentina, Austria and South Sudan, are in civil war. In the last quarter of 2024, NZ recorded the worst contraction out of the entire group of 40 developed nations the IMF tracks, at -1.1%. Can't be true, can it? Look at the IMF numbers yourself at this link (& click on "Statistical Appendix A: Key Global Economic Indicators") or get the figures here:
Over these past years many politicians, media types & think tanks have belittled comments on this Blog about mistakes NZ's leaders have made. Labour Leader Hipkins said in the run-up to the last election NZ was the fastest growing country in the world. None of NZ's Big Media Outlets called him out for his deception. We've been accused of exaggeration. Even last year when we highlighted the IMF figures, folks said the assertion was fudged by using projected figures. The numbers quoted today are all confirmed for 2024. How a nation could be lauded as having the best pandemic response in the world (just ask Hipkins and Ardern - they will tell you it was best - so it must be true) then fall to become one of the world's most stagnant backwaters, with a generation of its youth bailing out, is remarkable. The cause? Donkey Labour. Donkey National. Both corruptly put their Donkey mates into key positions of power. Not to mention an inbred private sector that should be turned on its head. Every monopoly in NZ should be smashed. National hasn't had the guts to smash a single one. Labour entrenched them during Covid. Exaggerating again? Go look at the IMF figures.