Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced new fiscal rules for the budget, which include a debt ceiling of 30% of GDP and that surpluses will be kept within a band of zero to 2% of GDP. As well, there will be a new debt measure that Robertson said would more closely align New Zealand with how debt is measured in other countries. The new debt measure rule effectively means the debt ceiling the Government has announced would be 50% under the old measure and 30% under the new. The zero to 2% surplus rule "will give us the flexibility to dip temporarily into a technical deficit from time-to-time for very specific reasons", Robertson said. Health funding will initially move to a two-year basis and later three years, while there will be a four-year rolling funding allowance for climate change spending.

Source: Stuff May 03, 2022 05:52 UTC