2. Question No. 2—FinanceDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 2—Finance2. Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn) to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has he seen on the New Zealand economy in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Mr Speaker kia orana. On Thursday Xero released small-business employment and revenue data for June showing many Kiwi small businesses are recovering from the impacts of COVID-19. The data showed that compared to Australia and the United Kingdom New Zealand has seen the strongest early rebuilding phase so far despite having the largest drop in small-business revenue when lockdowns were introduced. June 2020 small-business revenue is on par with revenue in June 2019 recovering from significant drops in May and April. In Australia revenue remains down 8 percent on June last year and in the UK it's down 18 percent. At the end of June the New Zealand small-business sector had 3.6 percent fewer jobs than pre-crisis levels. This compares to 6.8 percent fewer jobs in the Australian small-business sector and 8.5 percent in the UK. While we know that many small businesses are doing it tough right now this data underscores the benefit of the less restrictive business environment that Kiwi small and medium sized enterprises are now operating in thanks to the hard work of the team of 5 million. Dr Deborah Russell: What reports has he seen on consumer confidence in the New Zealand economy? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On Friday the ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey for July was released showing consumer confidence remained steady in July after resurgence through May and June. The overall consumer confidence index for July was 104.3 percent up from a low of 84.8 percent in April. It's encouraging to see a net 31 percent of consumers expect to be better off financially this time next year. While households' views of the next year's economic outlook lifted another four points it does remain very low. The proportion of households who think it's a good time to buy a major household item did fall as well. We can see that our decision to go hard and early in both our health and economic response to COVID-19 has given Kiwi households confidence coming out of the lockdown but it's also clear that with the virus raging overseas and many areas reimposing restrictions there is less certainty in the consumer environment. That's why we're committed to supporting New Zealand firms and workers to adapt to this one-in-100-year shock and we have made significant investments to back this up. Dr Deborah Russell: What actions has the Government taken to help the economy adapt to the impacts of COVID-19? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Mr Speaker in light of your admonishments to me I'll try to keep this short. In the face of a one-in-100-year shock to the global economy we have always acknowledged that we would not be able to save every job or every business and we have not hidden the fact that this is a global economic crisis that is still going but the Government is investing to cushion the blow on households and businesses to make sure that we're in the best position to respond recover and rebuild. Our decision to extend the wage subsidy scheme was designed to help businesses keep their employees attached while they adapt to this unprecedented economic shock. Likewise the COVID income relief payment recognises additional assistance is needed to cushion the blow for people who are looking for work or taking time to retrain. As we look ahead there are a number of areas where the Government's support will continue including investing in our people through policies to close the skills gap creating jobs preparing for the future supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs and positioning New Zealand globally to continue to trade with the world.