WELLINGTON – New Zealand’s government plans to borrow and spend vast amounts of money as it tries to keep unemployment below 10% in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson on Thursday unveiled a budget unlike any in the nation's history. Debt would shoot up from just over 20% of GDP to 54% by 2023, and thousands of jobs created by putting people to work building homes and improving the environment.
Still, the increased spending will not be enough to offset the economic devastation caused by the pandemic. Unemployment is expected to rise from just over 4% to nearly 10% by June.
And Robertson acknowledged that tourism, which had accounted for about 10% of the economy, was not going to be the same for many years