PM Weekly Column
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable summer break.
After a refreshing holiday with my family I’m looking forward to working hard to the year ahead. Although Parliament doesn’t officially resume until 10 February, the National-led Government is already hard at work.We start the year in good shape. The economy is continuing to perform well, with economic growth expected to average around 3 per cent over the next four years. This is better than the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada.New Zealanders are continuing to find jobs, with 72,000 more people employed than a year ago and an additional 153,000 people are expected to be in work by mid-2019. Unemployment is down to 5.4 per cent and is expected to fall to 4.5 per cent by 2018.
Wages are continuing to rise, with the average full-time wage is expected to increase by $8000 to around $64,000 by mid-2019. These positive economic results and outlook in an unpredictable world led one international bank economist to call New Zealand “the rock star economy”. However, our goal is n’t to be a rock star. It’s to continue to be rock solid. We want to maintain stable, sustainable growth over the long term to support New Zealanders and their families.
This week I’m in London meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron then I’m heading to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. This forum attracts around 3,000 political, business and economic leaders from around the world. It will offer me an invaluable insight into the global risks to New Zealand’s positive economic outlook. I arrive back in New Zealand next Tuesday and will head straight to Wellington for the first Cabinet meeting of the year. Next week I will also deliver my first major speech of the year in Auckland before heading to Waitangi the following week.
I can tell it is going to be another busy and productive year for the National-led Government. We are focused on continuing to make strides on things that matter to New Zealanders and their families – health, education, law and order, and building a more productive and competitive economy.
I hope 2015 is a good year for you all.
