Dompost learns not to take English’s word

• Marty G
• 14 years ago
• Categories: bill english, Economy, Media

Relying on Bill English’s statements in the House yesterday, the Dompost writes (not online):

“Statistics NZ has revised the growth figures going back about two decades and discovered that between 2005 and 2008 the economy grew a mere 0.9% a year, not 1.5% as previously reported. And last year’s recession was deeper than we thought.”

Actually, growth averaged 1.7% per year from the September years 2006, 2007, and 2008. The revision brought that down from an average of 2.2%.

You know, it’s fair enough in a way that the Dom got conned on this one. They trusted the Minister of Finance to get his maths right. But perhaps they’ll check for themselves in the future and print a correction tomorrow.

After all, English is the guy who was busy rorting the housing allowance for tens of thousands of dollars while the economy shrank 2.2% in his first year, after all. Probably not the most trustworthy authority on the economy.

PS. I see David Cunliffe has the first question today “To the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his recent statements?”