Nothing to be proud of

Bruce Cotterill writes:

The opposite of pride is embarrassment or shame. When I read this year that the current account deficit of this little country, as a percentage of GDP, was now the worst of all the countries in the OECD, I was disappointed and a bit embarrassed. Maybe I’m too competitive, but I want us to be better than that.

And then this week came that article I mentioned earlier. It says the latest International Monetary Fund data projects the NZ economy to have the second-lowest GDP growth in the world in 2024, placing us in 159th place out of 160 countries, alongside Italy. Fortunately, we were beaten into last place by Equatorial Guinea.

Just consider that. That means our GDP outlook for 2024 is worse than almost every basket-case economy, every war-torn country, every collapsing state, except for one. Worse than Zimbabwe, Greece or Venezuela.

My pride is quickly turning to embarrassment. Because I feel we should be doing something about it and people like me should be helping. But at the same time, we are powerless to do so, as long as those in the Beehive continue to fail to understand the problem.

As our politicians repeatedly fail us, there is an interesting question. At what point does incompetence become negligence?

Our finance minister continues to stand atop our “podium of truth” and say most of our inflation problems are generated overseas and that our books are in good shape, especially compared to our trading partners.

The facts are starting to assemble and the reality is that New Zealand’s economic measures are woeful on every front.

It is shameful that we have both the highest current account deficit in the OECD and the second bottom growth outlook in the entire world.