Simpson Scott: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10658. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel) to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he received indicating continuing economic growth in 2016 low inflation for New Zealand households and increased business activity?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Acting Minister of Finance): I have received Treasury’s Monthly Economic Indicators report. Treasury’s report of recent indicators including solid growth in retail spending and strong tourism flows to areas such as the member’s own electorate indicates the economy experienced reasonable growth in the March 2016 quarter. A net 18 percent of businesses expect increasing trading activity above the long-run average. The cost of living increases for New Zealand consumers remained low at 0.4 percent in the year to March well below average weekly wage increases of 3.1 percent.Scott Simpson: What recent reports has he seen updating the global economic outlook?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The International Monetary Fund has recently released its World Economic Outlook. In this report it has downgraded its forecast for the global economy to 3.2 percent in 2016 and 3.5 percent in 2017 which are reductions of 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent respectively. These downgrades in the global outlook reflect a softening in the outlook for advanced economies which are as a group expected to grow 1.9 percent this year and some weaknesses in emerging economies particularly Russia and Brazil. Notwithstanding this the IMF expects the New Zealand economy to grow 2 to 2.5 percent over the next 2 years compared with average growth of less than 2 percent across the other advanced economies. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister is not helping the order of the House.Scott Simpson: Given this outlook for the global economy what are the expected consequences for New Zealand?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: New Zealand’s major trading partners are concentrated in some of the emerging Asian economies these days particularly China as well as newly industrialised economies and also Australia. These account for more than half of New Zealand’s goods exports. They continue to perform relatively well with growth rates that are above the world average. But that will of course not always be the case which is why the Government believes opening up new markets through the Trans-Pacific Partnership is important. New Zealand is expected to be relatively well placed to benefit from China’s rebalancing from investment to consumption because it will raise demand for the sorts of goods that New Zealanders are more specialised in. This rebalancing will be of benefit to exporters around the country including in the Coromandel electorate.Scott Simpson: How will Budget 2016 deliver on the Government’s commitment to support the growing economy despite global economic uncertainty?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The Budget will deliver on the Government’s four priorities which are responsibly managing the Government’s finances delivering Better Public Services rebuilding Christchurch and building a productive and competitive economy. Budget 2016 will lift the Government’s commitment to businesses employment and growth alongside further support for core public services in particular health and education where funding for both is already at record levels. Government spending is around one-third of the economy and so public sector productivity matters to overall growth. The Government is investing in understanding the different services and how they work which is part of its increasing commitment to social investment in this coming Budget.