Fiscal restraint paying off

The crown accounts for last financial year are an improvement on the previous year (inherited from Chippie and Grant). Key metrics are:

• Deficit dropped from $8.4b to $4.4b
• Spending as a % of GDP dropped from 42.9% to 42.1%
• Core crown expenses down from 33.1% to 32.5%

Still a long way to go to get back to surplus and spending under 30% of GDP (a level which Labour and Greens in 2017 agreed was a cap). But finally it is heading the right way.