Economic Claims
letter by Susan St John, published in NZ Herald on 28 July 1999
It is misleading for Sir William Birch (Herald, 21st July) to talk about running surpluses and getting the debt down to 21% of GDP without making it clear that he is only talking about the government's budget and the level of the public debt. Nowhere in his article does he mention the outsized current account deficit and the increasing overseas debt. It is also misleading to highlight the 23% growth since 1991-92. That year was a very low point as New Zealand was in a deep recession. We had a lot of ground to make up. Meantime the population has also grown and the distribution of income become more unequal, with lower income groups not recovering their losses since 1984, while the highest income groups continue to soar ahead.