Economy worse than expected

The economy that National has inherited is even worse than thought at the end of last year.

NZPA reports that Treasury has told the Government it now expects unemployment to hit 7.5%.

PM Key has said that a number of initiatives have been considered and will be announced on 4 February.

To get some idea of how bad it is, look at these trade figures from the US, a reader sent to me:

THE NUMBERS: American imports:

July 2008: $230 billion
October 2008: $208 billion
November 2008: $183 billion

This is the biggest drop in imports since 1942. And it is near impossible for us to maintain exports and economic growth with that sort of contraction in the US.

I’m not sure the recession may not turn into a depression.