New Zealand announces anti-inflation measures in its budget

SYDNEY, Australia, May 19 (EFE) Life in a sea country.

More than two million people in the Maritime nation will receive a one-off payment of 350 New Zealand dollars (222 US dollars or 211 euros) to counter inflation of 6.9 percent, which was recorded between April 2021 and last March. The biggest increase in more than 30 years, according to a government report.

Likewise, the Ardern government extended a two-month fuel tax cut and a halving of public transport fares until the end of August, among other measures implemented in the country of six million people.

“No temporary quick relief will be perfect, but it will make a difference,” Ardern said in a speech to parliament, adding that “it’s difficult to give people as much certainty and security as possible in uncertain and insecure times, but that’s what they call the welfare budget.”

A government package to relieve low- and middle-income earners from rising prices this year is worth 1 billion New Zealand dollars (634 million US dollars or 604 million euros).

It is budgeted at 11,100 million New Zealand dollars (7,032 million US dollars or 6,703 million euros) to centralize services as part of the reform of the sector, the “biggest investment ever made in the health system”.

Another 2.9 billion New Zealand dollars (1.82 billion US dollars or 1.75 billion euros) program within the state budget, announced this week, is aimed at implementing policies to reduce pollutant emissions in New Zealand over the next four years. Department of Transport.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s budget tabled in Parliament in Wellington highlights New Zealand’s GDP growth of 4.2 per cent in the financial year ending June 2023, inflation at 5.2 per cent and unemployment at 3.3 per cent. Same period.

“Although the economic contraction associated with COVID-19 has been more profound and sudden than what New Zealand experienced during the global financial crisis, the economy has proven resilient,” Robertson said in a statement.

New Zealand, which has praised its government for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, has seen 95 percent of its population receive two doses of the vaccine and has amassed nearly 1.1 million infections, including 973 deaths, since the pandemic began.

In addition to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine has also fueled price hikes, mainly due to its effects on the gas market. EFE

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