The Government is being urged to make changes to stop Kiwis going backwards, following the release of today’s inflation data.

Statistics New Zealand show prices rose 7.3 per cent in the last year, the fastest rate since 1990.

“Supply-chain issues, labour costs, and higher demand have continued to push up the cost of building a new house,” general manager Jason Attewell said.

National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said “today’s data shows what any Kiwi family can confirm – rising prices are smashing household budgets. With every sector of the economy straining under cost pressures, there’s nowhere to hide from Labour’s cost of living crisis. 

Domestic – or non-tradable – inflation is at its highest level since the series began in 2000. Inflation is getting a firm grip on our economy. 

Labour keeps blaming international events like the war in Ukraine but refuses to take responsibility for their policy failures at home. 

We have been calling on the Government to present a plan to fight inflation for months. Spending more and announcing temporary measures won’t cut it. Spending billions to fight runaway inflation just puts more fuel on the fire, pushing up inflation and interest rates.”

Willis said “Treasury explicitly told Grant Robertson that, ‘a large portion of New Zealand’s inflation at present is being driven by strong domestic demand’ and that his high levels of spending are making the situation worse. Instead of listening to this advice, he ignored it. Kiwis are paying the price.

“A real plan would focus on strengthening the productive economy and unlocking the bottlenecks in the economy that are worsening inflation, including fixing failed immigration settings and stopping adding costs to business.

Lurching from crisis to press conference with knee-jerk responses isn’t good enough. Kiwis deserve a Government that can present a plan on the economy that enables everyone to get ahead, instead of relying on temporary band-aid payments and gimmicky policy making.”

Act Party Leader David Seymour said “there’s one sector of the economy that is not in recession: government. Thanks to inflation we have a Finance Minister who is raking in record taxes to pay for all of his spending.

We’re overtaxed and over-regulated. Grant Robertson needs to take his foot off the throat of taxpayers.

Altogether, Government spending has risen from $87 billion pre-Covid, to $108 billion mid-Covid, to $128 billion in the year to this June.”