NZ goes hard with US$7.3bil stimulus to rescue economy

Finance Minister Grant Robertson(pic) said preliminary Treasury department forecasts showed annual growth was expected to contract by 1% year-on-year in March 2021 if the package is implemented, a slower contraction than the 3% forecast without the support.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand has announced one of the largest per capita stimulus packages in the world, amounting to 4% of its GDP, in an attempt to soften the negative economic impact from the coronavirus outbreak.

The NZ$12bil (US$7.3bil) package was larger than that implemented during the global financial crisis, and bigger as a proportion of GDP than those announced by countries like Australia and Singapore, authorities said.