Budget 2014: heading towards surplus

Bill English with his budget.

The Treasury says that New Zealand is now heading towards getting the government's books into surplus from 2015. This is an incredible turn-around when you compare it to the pre-election economic fiscal and economic update before National was elected in 2008: back then, the deficit was set to continue until at least 2018.

On top of that, since 2008 we've had first a recession, then the global financial crisis resulting in finance company collapses, the Pike River Mine disaster and two devastating earthquakes in Canterbury. That the government's books are now forecasting a surplus has been a mammoth effort on the part of the Minister of Finance, Bill English, and his team.