The overseas debt of the Key government has now gone from $18 billion in December 2008 to $40 billion in June 2011 (Statistics NZ). This means they have borrowed $22 billion since being elected – 3 years of budget deficits.
The previous Labour government had 9 years of budget surpluses and saved a total of $16 billion ($18 billion saved into the NZ Superannuation Fund less $2 billion overseas borrowing).
As well as borrowing $22 billion over 3 years the Key government has also stopped saving into the NZ Superannuation Fund.
Simon Bridges describes this as responsible economic management and getting on top of debt. In fact the Key government has steadily increased its spending with almost no increase in its income.
It has an economic policy that is not working and is based on unaffordable tax cuts.
The Key government is not getting on top of debt.
It is handing its debt over to some other government in 2015 or beyond to sort out. This probably explains why our international credit rating has now been downgraded from AA+ to AA.
Peter Dey, Welcome Bay.