But the latest Treasury Report confirmed that the country’s accounts were $449 million worse off in the three months to September 30, which is almost four times worse off than National’s surplus target of $197 million surplus.
The Government’s operating deficit was wider than forecast in the first quarter of the financial year as tax income was less than expected in a subdued economy.
The operating balance before gains and losses showed deficit of $2.1 billion in the quarter-ending September ($449 million or 27% more than forecast).
Core Crown tax revenue was $13.5 billion or 2.1% lower than expected.
Is our economy in real danger? Are we heading to another recession? Is National Government managing the economy efficiently?
National’s target to reach a surplus in the 2014-2015 financial year appears to be a distant dream.
The ticking bomb
The National Government has created another record, beating its own record of 1999 of the highest jobless rate in 13 years.
Unemployment increased in the third quarter in a row, confirming the Government’s continuing failure to turn around the economy.
Prime Minister John Key promised that he would create 170,000 new jobs; instead, we have 175,000 Kiwis out of work.
As per the current figures, New Zealand’s Unemployment has reached 7.3% (up by 0.5%, confirming that 13000 more were out of work in just three months).
Unemployment in Hawkes Bay and Auckland has reached respectively 8.9% and 8.6%, while 15.1% Maori and 15.6% Pacific communities are out of work.
Most dangerously, the unemployment rate among 15 to 19 year-olds is 25%.
This is a national disgrace.
We are sitting on a ticking bomb. The number of jobless people in this country is now almost 300,000.
One in four of our young people aged 15-19 are unemployed.
Further losses
Some economists say that another 25,000 workers could be unemployed by next year. National Government needed 53,125 more people to be employed over the past five quarters to be on target. They only had 5000.
Mr Key needs 48,125 more people employed to be on track to fulfil his election promise of creating 170,000 more jobs.
The economy should be his sole focus.
These figures come as no surprise to New Zealanders. More job losses are becoming the norm week after week.
Rising beneficiaries
Accusing the previous Labour Governments for overspending on beneficiaries, National had promised clamping on this area.
But as per the recent figures, since National took office, the number of beneficiaries has increased to 50,390, whereas under Labour, the number of unemployment beneficiaries decreased dramatically to 23,856 because people were moving into work.
The number on the Sickness Benefit has gone up from 49,440 (under Labour) to 59,595 under Mr English’s watch. The sad reality is that these numbers would be much worse if it was not for 6004 Kiwis who were beneficiaries, left for overseas in search of work in 2011-2012.
Manufacturing falls
The manufacturing sector is collapsing.
Mr Key’s repeated claims that manufacturing is in good hands have been proved wrong by a Treasury statement, which said that the sector’s performance has been negative for the year.
The latest BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) also showed the sector in decline over the past four months.
The PMI for September was 48.2 (a reading below 50.0 indicates that the sector is declining), with the average over the last quarter at 48.3.
BERL Chief Economist Ganesh Nana has urged the Government to change course to avoid yet another damaging recession.
“Without changes to our policy settings, the short term picture is not pretty, with our models projecting even further rises in jobless numbers,” he said.
Sunny Kaushal is a Member of the Labour Party of New Zealand
