2. Economy—Business ConfidenceHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister of FinanceEconomy—Business Confidence2. Hon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister of Finance: Does he agree with the Treasury that weaker confidence in conjunction with other data highlights the risk that growth over the coming fiscal year may be weaker than forecast in the Budget" and the Reserve Bank that "with surveyed business confidence falling and continued softness in the housing market GDP growth may not recover as expected"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I agree with Treasury and the Reserve Bank that there are risks to economic growth. I also agree with them that growth has held steady and that the fundamentals of the economy are sound. In particular I agree with the Reserve Bank's Governor's comment that business investment should be increasing and economic growth is still very positive. Just today that has been backed by Craig Hudson from Xero who has said "Xero's Small Business Insights data challenges the notion that the economy is in a downturn."Hon Amy Adams: What does it say about the future of the economy that firms' view of their own activity which both he and the Reserve Bank have said is a measure that they look to is now 23 points below its long-run average and 15 points below its average even under the past previous Labour Government?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Most of the businesses who are making their reports of profits at the moment are reporting big increases in profits—just today Freightways Group we had Hallensteins last week the ASB. What we know is that the economy has strong fundamentals that we have a surplus that we have debt tracking down. There is every reason to be optimistic about the economy.Hon Amy Adams: When the Prime Minister said this morning that the Government will "focus more on bringing as much certainty around its agenda as I can." does he think that setting up 135 working groups banning oil and gas without consultation refusing to heed concerns about industrial relations reforms and dismissing the views of business as both biased and junk are symbolic of a Government giving business certainty?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I don't agree with the premises in that member's question but what this Government did have to do on coming into office was clean up the mess of nine years of neglect across almost every portfolio area. We are bringing in a lot of people to help us with that agenda they are enjoying that exercise and we will improve on the mess that was left for us.Hon Amy Adams: How will he adjust the Government's programme to respond to concerns like those raised by the BNZ today—that New Zealand threatens to move into a pseudo-stagflationary environment with GDP growth likely to surprise on the downside eating into revenue forecasts while demands on expenditure will only increase?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I'd encourage the member to read a little further down the page where it says "There remains plenty of momentum in the economy. The Government is providing substantial fiscal stimulus and monetary conditions are not only stimulatory but are easing further too."—bottom of the page.Hon Amy Adams: Well does he share the sentiment of the Prime Minister that the reason business confidence is at a 10-year low and New Zealand has fallen from near the top to nearly the bottom of the OECD rankings is because businesses just don't understand the Government's policies; or is the truth that business understands perfectly well—they just don't like this Government's policies?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I don't believe that's a fair characterisation of what the Prime Minister said. What we know historically is that business confidence surveys have been more pessimistic with Governments with Labour at the centre of them. But at the same time economic growth has been solid: 3.2 percent the last time compared to 1.9 percent under the nine years of the National Government."