Election prediction

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 25

Election prediction

jq2PA London The International Monetary Fund appeared to have written the election manifesto of the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), a “Financial Times” correspondent, Colin Chapman has said. Chapman, who recently visited Wellington, said in a report on the New Zealand economy that an I.M.F. team that visited the country in December had reported a significant improvement in underlying economic conditions over the last 18 months. The team said this success was a “direct result. of the policies the authorities put in place in mid-1979 which have helped restore a more stable financial environment while at the same, time giving a strong, new impetus to the strategy of structural

adjustment which has been pursued since the mid--19705.”

The report, which is now With Mr Muldoon, noted the reduction in Government deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product and was particularly complimentary about the manufacturing industry’s performance, Chapman said. Referring to New Zealand’s resources boom, the I.M.F. sajd this would have a dramatic effect on the country’s chronic balance-of-payments problems by the middle of the 1980 s. “The fund appears to have written Mr Muldoon’s election manifesto,'and with his hand strengthened by successfully turning the series of strikes a few weeks ago into a law and order issue, the Opposition will find it hard to unseat him,” Mr